Whiteboard: Why Less Is More In Design
Readers only have so much attention to give, and this variable will expand and contract depending on factors you can’t control: whether they are rushed for time, whether they have had your site recommended to them or have simply stumbled across it, and so on.
Reader attention doesn’t expand depending on how much information your site communicates to them. More elements does not mean they will devote more attention to compensate.
The visualization above is designed to show how a set amount of reader attention is distributed differently across two different sites: the top, a site which has not simplified down to essentials, and bottom, a site which has. The visualization represents the ‘initial sweep’ of reader attention, in which a reader rapidly determines where and how to focus on your layout.
It’s intended to resemble a blog layout, with a left sidebar, content and headline in the middle, a right sidebar, topped by a header. The layout isn’t meant to suggest a concrete design for your site, and the boxes and rectangles could be switched around to any other configuration. It does aim to show how the way attention is distributed changes depending on what is emphasized by your design.
A site mixing unimportant and essential elements ensures reader attention is split, divided, unfocused, and sometimes squandered. The most important aspects of your site will often get lost in the mix.
A site simplified down to its essential elements ensures reader attention is lazer-focused on what matters. More attention devoted to specific elements means more interactivity, more resonance, and greater understanding.
Your design isn’t an ornament — it’s a means to those crucially important ends.
This article has explained the why of simplifying your design. The articles below explain how, from a variety of perspectives: usability, uncluttering, minimalism, and simplicity.
- 50 Tips to Unclutter Your Blog
- Critique Your Design
- A Guide to Creating a Minimalist Website
- Why Simplicity?
- A Beginner’s Guide to Making Your Site More Usable
- The Blog Usability Checklist
