Keep It Clear, Kiddo!

When KISSing doesn’t always deliver

Tyler Hilker
Aug 23, 2017 · 3 min read

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

“Keep It Simple, Stupid” is a longstanding gem in the design world. And yet, I’ve never been comfortable with it.

Because: define simple. So-called simple designs can actually create more confusion by removing helpful information for the sake of simplicity. Simplicity for designers/stakeholders is often too simple for the actual audience. And let’s be honest: simplicity is easy.

Keep It Clear, Kiddo!

Clarity is key, and, I think what advocates for simple actually want. While simplicity implies clarity, it also leaves room for ambiguity: Simplicity cares about how much is on the page; Clarity cares about the quality of the outcome.

“To clarify, add detail. Imagine that, to clarify, add detail. Clutter and overload are not attributes of information, they are failures of design. If the information is in chaos, don’t start throwing out information, instead fix the design.” — Edward Tufte

Forcing your complexity onto unqualified victims

Below are some instructions that came with a (super cool!) toy that we got for our kids.

I can hear it now: “It needs to be simple! Three steps, max!” And its web design corollary: “No more than three clicks!”—Manager. As the process is laid out, yeah, it’s only three steps. And there are more complex ways to display them. But it just looks complicated.

Complexity is inherent in almost any design endeavor, and absolutely certain in large-scale enterprise projects. It’s the designer’s responsibility to discover, deconstruct, and repackage that complexity in whatever ways demand the least effort from the audience. Don’t expose your organizational dysfunction any more than necessary.

“Our job is to demystify things, not simplify them.” — Kip Voytek, via my sage co-worker, Andy Clark

The curse of knowledge is a (the most?) dominant preacher of simplicity whose sermons hide vast assumptions & expectations that aren’t shared broadly. Of course, there’s a point of absurdity in reducing every process to a single step at a time; and so a good heuristic might be to simplify as far as you think you need to, and then a couple steps further. Again, clarity cares about outcomes, not counting.

Acronymic breakdown

To Keep implies an initial state; in this case, one of clarity. It takes work to maintain such a state, fending off entropy as fiercely as possible.

It: has the It been defined? Does everyone agree on the It? If there’s no agreement on the It, there’s no way you’re going to reach, let alone maintain, any sense of shared clarity.

Clear: See above. All of it.

Lastly, Kiddo embodies a positive spirit of humility & endearment and acknowledges room for growth. Stupid doesn’t have the good faith collaborative dynamic at its core. It might be a good personal mantra, but I’d honestly never say that to another person.

And KICS didn’t make a cute acronym.

So what?

Ask around. Test.

KICK it with some folks outside your organization.

The Recognition Effect

Considering the impact of treating humans like people.

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