Last night I was watching Michael Caine on Letterman. He was talking about how to be a good actor. Caine explained, the viewer needs to be thinking: “I wonder what’s going to happen next to Johnny Smith…” not “Michael Caine is such a good actor in this movie isn’t he..? His character Johnny Smith is so complex!” If he’s noticed for his good acting during the film, Caine considers his performance a failure.
Like actors, when designers have done their job well, we tend not to notice it. The best design isn’t actually there. But of course it is. We take it for granted — it seems elementary and obvious, as if it’s always been like that — how could it be anything else? That’s because it’s been stripped to its essential purpose.
Interfaces and experiences I encounter everyday from my coffee cup to my computer, the desk it sits on, to the chair I sit on are all underdesigned. I know this because I rarely pay them any mind at all — except, of course, on the rare occasions when they don’t work how I’d like.
It’s unfortunate that failures in a design tend to be more noticed consciously than successes. That’s because when something’s succeeding, good designers don’t want you to notice the thought that’s gone into making it. Like Michael Caine’s performance, you should be immersed in the experience, not its delivery. Whether it’s to communicate a message or facilitate an action, design should never get in the way of itself.
“When things are going well in a design, we don’t pay attention to them. We only pay attention to things that bother us. It’s like an air conditioner in a conference room. Nobody ever interrupts our meetings to tell us how comfortable the temperature is. They don’t even notice.”
Jared Spool
UX designer
It takes a touch of humility from Michael Caine to realise his purpose is better served when he keeps himself out of his performance. Likewise, when we design without trying to give our skills the limelight, we risk them going unnoticed, but perhaps we do our job better.
This week Flavors.me is finally rolling out its latest feature, the ‘Grid’ layout, which I had a hand in designing, but is due largely the ongoing work of Jack Zerby. Jack is one of the most underrated designers I know. He’s also one of the few designers I’ve worked with who really understands the value in underdesigning things.
This philosophy is certainly reflected in Flavors.me. After all, its whole purpose is to put its users center-stage. Still, that doesn’t mean there’s not an underlying system at work behind the scenes looking after everything from spacing to line-heights, font-sizes and floats. Hours and hours have been spent developing a system, in which, hopefully it’s kind of hard to make something ugly. The design is there. But while they’re creating their own page, most people will hopefully never notice it.
So how do you make sure your design doesn’t get in the way of itself?
Textures, treatments, colours and typefaces get most of the attention in graphic design. Of course they’re important, but they’re irrelevant if the underlying concept, content and structure isn’t well conceived. This is the design. The rest is just execution. Worry about the cake before the icing. Try to always work from the purpose and let it inform the rest.
Design is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It’s a path to a destination. Adding flowers by the roadside won’t make this path more direct. Decoration is over-design.
Anything that’s not vital to the purpose of the design should probably not be there. That’s not to say your design should be bland and bare-bones. Where you draw the line on what stays depends on your style, the job and the audience. My suggestion — be ruthless.
Underdesigning means avoiding embellishments and fluff. This often happens when we over-think and overwork. Whether it’s an ad that needs to communicate or an interface that needs to facilitate, be clear on the thing(s) you’re trying to do. Audit the design against these objectives. If it ticks all the boxes, stop adding things and start taking things away.
—Published 10 May, 2010