Universal Principles of UX

45

Introduce complexity only when necessary.

The biggest discussions in any project are always about the feature set—what will users actually be able to do in the final product? Most of the time, stakeholders get stuck on a cool idea without asking if it’s essential in helping the user achieve their goal. Our job as UX designers is to advocate for the user’s needs, ruthlessly editing down unnecessary content and functionality that will get in their way (see Principle 11).

In our studio, we always start with the simplest solution and introduce complexity only when necessary, not just for the user’s sake but also for our own sanity. We have to get the project done on time and within budget, and whatever we design needs to be easy to build and ...