A Farewell to Content Overload

When writing about simplicity, it’s almost impossible to not sound like a bumbling idiot.

Therefore, I’ll get right to the point:

Creating a simple interface for your content is the greatest thing you can do for your audience. Here are 5 reasons why: 

1. Simple is less intimidating to the user.

In his 2004 book The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less, psychologist Barry Schwartz claims (rightfully so) that “eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers.” Seven years later, the adage still applies, especially for digital content consumers.

People are busy. Their time is valuable. Their attention is scarce. And they have plenty of other options if you insert unnecessary learning curves.

Outside the world wide web (in the world wide world) people are overwhelmed with choices. Don’t let your digital offering contribute to the collective headache. Introducing new learning curves (or in industry parlance, bells and whistles) might turn your audience away.

The lesson here is not to overwhelm your audience with choice in a world where they are constantly overwhelmed with making choices. What’s easier to comprehend is easier to consume and is more likely to be shared.

2. Simple typically loads faster.

We’re not a patient bunch. Never have been and never will be. Simplicity paves the way for speed. The by-products of speed can be higher search engine rankings and longer user sessions on your website or in your app.

3. Simple is less likely to “break.”

A common adage in the world of mechanical engineering is paraphrased as such: “the machine with the fewest moving parts is least likely to break.”

Exotic functionality and complex designs and features have more potential for error. Not just human error (i.e. “this is hard to understand and navigate”) but also machine error (i.e. browser cross-compatability becomes more of an issue, rendering properly across an ever-expanding group of devices becomes more of an issue).

Recently in the fast-growing realm of magazine web apps, Hearst Magazines VP Chris Wilkes had this to say: “Those advanced elements are often more likely to be distracting, cause confusion, and occasionally irritate customers if the execution is not perfect.”

In other words focus less on bells and whistles and more on nuts and bolts.

4. People will pay a premium for simple.

As Chris Dornfeld once put it, “contrary to our instincts, there’s often greater value in having less of something.”

Less choices may mean less headaches, of course, but more importantly, less choice can sometimes mean more revenue.

For example:

• In a now famous study, researchers found that people who were exposed to a smaller menu of jam in a grocery store were more likely to purchase jam than those who were exposed to a larger list (debunking the notion that “more” means “better”).

• Siegel and Gale’s Global Brand Simplicity Index found that people are willing to pay up more for products that seemed “simpler” to them.

5. Simple is a stronger branding play.

There are few companies which are truly Swiss-army knife products (i.e. everything to everyone). Unless you’re Facebook, Google, or, well, The Swiss Army, you’re probably like the rest of us: fighting for attention in an increasingly competitive landscape.

The elevator pitch moment is getting shorter and shorter – are you communicating your brand’s value concisely? The framework of simplicity will help ensure that you are.

Because whether you are a brand, a website, a digital magazine, or a menu at Burger King: it’s better to be great at one thing than mediocre at a bunch of them.

The true problem though, is that simple is a lot harder than it looks.

[Image: D’Arcy Norman]