Part 2Setting a vision

Making sense of the muddle

Whether you’re designing a multichannel service or a drop-down menu, you need a way of judging whether you’re keeping things simple. A vision brings clarity when complexity starts to crowd in.

That sense of complexity arises when you’re unable to prioritize many competing ideas. The purpose of a good vision is to make it obvious what you must do.

When I find myself tied in knots over a design, I take a step back and ask myself, “What is the user really trying to do here?” The answer becomes my north star for a simple design. This works especially well when I am designing something very small (like one page in a larger website) and when I know more or less what I have to design.

The way I ask that ...

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