Universal Principles of UX

11

Less is more.

We’re finally here at the biggest design debate and cliché of the twentieth century—less is more. Every year I have my students debate various design clichés, and less is more is always the most controversial. Before hearing both sides of the argument, students tend to believe that less is more, but afterwards, almost all of them change their minds. The truth is, there is no right or wrong here. Sometimes less is more, and sometimes it’s not. Later on we’ll cover the other side of this argument (see Principle 12), but let’s first look at when less actually is more in UX.

The phrase comes from midcentury architecture and was popularized in 1947 by German modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe who—like other people associated ...