Much Much Less is More
Amy Mahon asks:
Why do clients ask for “clean and modern” when really they mean “cluttered and busy”?
The trouble with website design or development clients is that they lack the perspective of an ordinary website user. Clients will usually forget that users have looked at several website before the client’s site: they make the mistake of looking at their website in isolation, much as you might look at a book or a magazine (or a piece of art).
If websites were viewed in isolation, more information would be great. Users could sit there for hours and browse these massive, detailed, complex websites to their hearts content, and come away thinking, “wow: that was so useful! So much information, everything I could ever want”.
(Actually, that’s exactly how most website design clients do use their own website! Because it’s their own, they sit and fawn over it for much, much longer than the ordinary user would; noticing every imperfection, every missing answer to every tiny possible question that a user might possibly ask… and so on. Whereas most users don’t care about this stuff: they just want something simple.)
Websites do not exist in isolation. Clients have to realise that their website is one of many that people will look at in a short period of time, and this means that the client’s impressions as a website ‘user’ will not actually match a real user’s requirements. Clients want to shout from the rooftops about their business, and they love to go on and on — it’s the job of a designer to convince the client that less really is more.
The best way to do this is to encourage the client to see things from their users’ perspective. Ask them to imagine visiting their website after an hours’ browsing. Ask them to consider favourite websites (which don’t relate to their area of business): what makes those websites fun, easy to use, useful? Chances are “simplicity” will come high on the list, and then maybe the client will start to appreciate that when it comes to the web, less is really much, much more.