Making Complex Things Easy…
is Harder Than Making Complex Things Simple
Sure, less is more… unless less means you can’t split the Uber fare with your friend or post non-square images to Instagram or send a Venmo charge to six people at once. We have a cultural fascination with making complicated things simple. Consumers are conditioned to expect information and services in palatable, instantly satisfying bites. No one wants complicated. Complicated is effort. Complicated is not sexy.
From a product perspective, a solution presents itself: let’s make every task as simple as possible. Let’s test UX on drunk and technology-challenged (is that the nice way to put it, mom?) people.
But as a true solution, that’s paradoxical: complex things can’t be simple, they can only be simplified. Presenting a simple solution to a complex problem fails to address the full problem.
Challenge: put the onus on your team to make the complex effortless. Make complex sexy. Let’s also test UX on users with sophisticated needs and understandings, users who experience the entirety of the problem and appreciate the thorough solution.
The key UX question now changes:
“How can we solve the most important pain point without any distractions?”
becomes
“How can we create a comprehensive solution to a multi-faceted problem that feels obvious?”
Instead of cutting functionality, hide it. Attain the decluttered aesthetic by anticipating what users need at any given time and presenting them with as close to only that as possible.
I’ve seen this done in two effective ways:
Activity-triggered — user action unveils increased functionality.
Waze is one of the most complicated apps I use. Below is an example of how they employ activity-triggered functionality. After tapping the screen (as opposed to a purposeful swipe or tapping on a specific button), the grey icons shown on the right screenshot appear, allowing you to change volume, direction, and zoom settings. This is particularly elegant because it allows increased functionality without interrupting the user experience (like by bringing you off the page you care most about to a menu page).
Hiding in plain sight — the functionality is visible, but no one notices it that isn’t specifically looking for it.
Facebook is another very complicated app. They do a great job with hiding functionality in plain sight. I bet there are a number of Facebook functions that you have never used AND never noticed, but are right there in front of your face. My personal example is the ‘Check In’ button. It’s always there and I never see it. If I ever wanted to check in somewhere though, I bet you I’d find it right away.
The reality with complex apps is that there will inevitably be non-core functionalities that many users frequently use and love, yet many other users never use and do not care about. Those actions should be readily available to those who want them and at the same time almost invisible to those who do not. A function cannot hide in plain sight if it annoys you or confuses you. You will notice anything that is annoying or confusing and you will not be happy you did.
Our first iteration of Parlay allowed users to sort challenges based on their status: live, proposed, accepted, rejected, judged, or cancelled. The below screenshot is a great example of function that is both annoying and confusing. What do all those icons mean? They are clouding my ability to hone in on what is most important. Annoying. They are keeping me from understanding what is going on. Confusing.
Solution: we have a default list of all challenges that can be filtered into any of the aforementioned categories by clicking into the filter menu. Less annoying. The icons in the filter menu are each accompanied by what they mean in words: ⚡️ Live, 👑 Won, 😞 Lost, etc. Less confusing.
At Parlay, we are functionality fanatics. Lovers of functionality have to be particularly focused on making complicated things easy because they tend to make really complicated things. We continue to work towards a product that has the ease of use that is inherent in a simple product, but also the diversity of function necessary for a comprehensive solution.
Curious how our UI/UX has evolved since then? We would love for you to check it out! http://parlaywith.me/
