The Complexity of Simplicity in UI/UX Design

When users say "simple", they mean something incredibly easy to use. But ease of use is not the same as ease of creation, and that is the core complexity of simplicity.

But despite all the difficulties, many companies choose to make simplicity in design one of their top priorities. Why? Perhaps because they understand the role of psychology in UX design.

Why Do People Need Simplicity?

Human behavior plays an important role in the design process. People need simplicity because they encounter the basic laws of UX every day in their lives.

See for yourself. Recall the Olympic Games emblem. How would you describe it?

You likely wouldn't describe it as a combination of connected lines or shapes. Instead, you'd probably say it's five rings overlapping each other. That's because circles are the most familiar objects your brain can recognize with the least cognitive effort.

This is called the law of Prägnanz, a cornerstone of Gestalt grouping laws. It states that the human eye likes to find order and simplicity in complex forms and turn them into unified shapes. This happens because our brain strives not to overload us with information.

Your user interface can benefit from this law. Users perceive your interface as a whole, so if you want to simplify their perception, choose basic shapes and arrange them in a clear and predictable way. Conversely, if you want to highlight a part of the interface, break this rule.

Here are a few more proofs that the human brain seeks simplicity in complexity.

The Zeigarnik effect describes people's tendency to pay more attention to unfinished tasks than to completed ones. We are more likely to remember information that might help us complete an unfinished task because the psychological stress caused by that unfinished state intensifies.

This law can be used when you want to push a user to complete a specific task or help them tackle difficult work. Giving users extra motivation, such as adding a progress indicator during onboarding, increases the likelihood that people will finish and not abandon the task.

According to Hick's law, the number of choices a person has affects how long it takes them to make a decision. The more options, the more time required to perform an action. So, if you want to simplify your app using this principle, limit the number of options you present to users (e.g., the number of items in a menu bar).
The peak-end rule states that people's memory retains only the strongest positive or negative moments and the outcome of a particular experience (not the entire experience). Therefore, when designing a complex product, try to make users forget about actions that require a lot of time and effort.
Tesler's law states that every app/product/software has a certain level of complexity that cannot be reduced and must therefore be handled either by the developer/designer or by the user.

Larry Tesler, the researcher behind this law, argued that complexity does not disappear but rather moves from one area to another. So, if you decide to simplify the app for users, that complexity inevitably shifts to developers/designers. Carefully consider to what extent complexity should be transferred from users to developers and vice versa.

These are just five of dozens of psychological laws discovered by scientists and confirmed by experiments that show us how to balance simplicity and complexity in design. Studying the results of such experiments allows us to formulate design simplicity principles that help eliminate obstacles on the user's path to their goal.

Principles of Simplicity in UI/UX Design

Businesses are constantly trying to create simple and usable products. They want more features and advanced technologies combined with an easy and simple-to-use format. But is it possible to increase functionality without sacrificing simplicity and usability?

Products Should Be Value-Oriented

We all know that you can't please everyone. This statement holds true for your software as well. If you try to make an app useful for a wide range of audiences, people will likely not understand which problem it's supposed to solve, and therefore won't use it.

To make your app simple, define its core value and the people who can genuinely benefit from using your product, and keep that value in mind throughout the development process.

For example, while Yahoo's homepage offers visitors a multitude of different features (many of which may be irrelevant and distract users from their primary goal), Google uses a clean UI to focus users' attention on just one main goal—search.

When in Doubt, Just Remove

The fastest and easiest way to achieve simplicity is to get rid of unnecessary elements in the interface. Whether it's a rarely used button, some secondary information, or a fancy but distracting formatting style—if it doesn't bring the user closer to their goal, remove it.

Eliminate Unnecessary Choices

Making any decision requires time and effort. When users have to make too many choices, it creates additional cognitive load, forcing them to do work they'd rather avoid (recall Hick's law from earlier). Therefore, to ease users' workload, support quick decision-making.

Guide and Assist Users

Sometimes we need additional instructions before completing a task or during a first-time experience. Instead of overwhelming users with a lot of training information, offer contextual help. To make users feel comfortable using the app, you can add small tooltips, enable autocomplete and autocorrect, include error messages, support inline editing, and so on.

Meet User Expectations

Every person who approaches your product has certain experiences that shape specific expectations for your app. Meeting these expectations gives users a sense of control over the app and thus increases trust.

To help users adapt to a new interface faster and focus on the main task, apply common UX patterns and limit the number of creative design innovations.

For example, a three-dot icon usually indicates that more options are available when clicked.

Choose the Right Data Visualization Method

Since humans are physiologically wired to analyze everything around them visually, visual data presentation increases content effectiveness by making information easier to perceive, process, and remember. Therefore, to help clients make data-driven decisions faster, choose an appropriate data visualization format.

For instance, multi-line charts are best for describing subtle variations in data, while a bullet graph is great for showing a key metric compared to a target.

Show Users Where They Are in the Process

Providing users with a clear understanding of where they are in the app and where to go next eliminates uncertainty and makes their overall experience more intuitive. This principle is especially relevant for complex processes.

Highlight Important Elements for Users

At each step of the user's journey toward a goal, there are elements that are more important and bring them closer to the final outcome. Identify these points and make them the focus of the user's attention.

What stands out from the crowd is more likely to be remembered. When we use bold text or choose a distinctive color to differentiate it from other page elements, we emphasize important information among similar data.

Create Hierarchy with Typography

You may have heard that most users don't read. That's true, but UX readability is still important when designing for simplicity.

People scan your app for signals that tell them, "This information is worth paying attention to." You can arrange information on the page to guide the user along their path. Descriptive headings and labels, font size and color, use of capitalization, etc., allow you to create hierarchy and help users confirm they are in the right place and taking the right actions.

Group Related Components Together

If you recall the law of Prägnanz mentioned earlier, you'll remember that the human brain perceives visual objects as a single form (not as separate components). Therefore, users find it much easier to deal with a few groups of content than with many unrelated elements.

You can indicate that content belongs to a specific group by placing it in a single dropdown menu, using the same background color, adding borders, etc.

For example, group related functions using the same style and size for menu icons.

It seems that creating a simple design is not so easy. Moreover, you cannot simply apply these principles without understanding the product idea, planning, and research. Here's what simplicity design looks like in real life.

What Really Goes into That Simple UI/UX Design?

Detailed user research to identify the true needs of the target audience.
Competitive analysis and benchmarking to evaluate competitors' strengths and weaknesses and, based on the results, define a unique value proposition.
Market research to understand legal constraints related to providing financial advice in the UK and generate ideas for adapting the app to existing regulations.
Feature prioritization to correctly define the minimum viable set of features.
Wireframing—thinking through and visualizing the platform's sequential structure according to the product vision.
A/B testing to determine which of several screen options best meets user expectations and needs, and will become the future MVP.
Prototyping to present the finished platform design with structure, functions, content, and visual components.
Constant communication via Slack and regular video calls twice a week to discuss development progress and results.

The point is that both complexity and simplicity in design are subjective concepts. That is, different people perceive them differently. Therefore, to successfully apply the UX principles discussed above and start reducing complexity, you must first understand what exactly is complex in your product.

When the app reaches a stage where you can present something visual, like a sketch, wireframe, or mockup, show it to users to get their feedback. Carefully analyze their feedback and be ready to iterate. And remember, behind every simple product lies a great deal of effort.