Addition By Subtraction
As you may know, I am not fond of redesigns.
Today, I was talking to a designer about—I’m loathe to say—a redesign of one of the pages on our site. As we were discussing all the things that were changing on the page, I asked:
What are we taking away? If we had to take away 10% of the stuff on the page, what would we remove?
And, to the extent that we must redesign things, I think it’s important to consider what will be removed. It is equally as important as what will be added…
…no, wait…what we’re taking away is more important than what will be added! If we keep on adding stuff to our apps, then our apps just become noisy, cluttered and unusable.
If simplicity is a goal (in my view, it is the only goal) of every design, then the focus on removing excess should be superior to the focus on adding new. The excess is just weight, and having to carry that weight is wasted effort.
Absolutely: simplifying is often the answer. Writing about it on a page that has two identical sets of social media buttons just helps to bring home the point.
Apel Mjausson
15 Sep 11 at 1:28 pm
[...] my blog. Here's the Top 5 Reasons Why You Should! I was just thinking about the post I wrote on design by removal. It occurred to me that this lesson may apply to life as [...]
Happiness is Removing Stuff From Your Life at Scott Porad
15 Sep 11 at 1:54 pm
I agree simple is best.
Ashley
21 Sep 11 at 8:11 pm