In the design industry you often hear the phrase ‘Keep it simple, stupid’ or ‘Keep it simple, son’.
Both amount to the same acronym ‘K.I.S.S.’
Keep those 4 letters in your head and you’ll do alright.
So, why keep it simple? What does keeping it simple mean?
Well, the reality behind the idea of ‘keeping it simple’ is pretty straight forward.
The simpler you make a design, the less chances you have to make a mistake.
Each element that is added to a design (of any sort) ‘should’ have a purpose. It should perform a task or fulfill a need. It should target a purpose.
‘Purpose targets’ can involve everything from function to communication to efficiency.
By adding unnecessary elements to a design, your design requires more power to perform its function, the message you wish to communicate is diluted, and your design performs at a lower efficiency.
Here are some examples:
- Logos designed with fine line work. Viewed at a small size the line work becomes jumbled or disappears. The same when large logos are viewed from a distance.
- Television ads. Too much background noise, music or sound effects. Causes the message spoken by the voice over to be hard to hear. You miss the message.
- Magazine advertising. Too many messages or too much text dilute the most important idea. The messages fight for attention. You end up with the reader not receiving enough impact from any one message. They fail to be called to act on your idea.
So with each element you add, you have another chance of missing the purpose target and ultimately causing the overall design to miss it’s full potential.
By keeping the elements involved in a design to a bare minimum, you have less chance to miss your purpose targets and you allow your design to become efficient.
I see examples of over complicated design every day.
Have you seen design that could be simplified to become more efficient?
Can you simplify your own designs?
There is more to this topic, including Keeping it simple for customers. Which I may discuss in another post.
But for now, I’d be interested in your feedback.
