The product design concept of “minimalism” is very popular nowadays, but must the minimalist style be what users like and need? Steven Sinofsky, the father of Windows 8 and a partner of the A16Z board of directors, recently mentioned a new one in an article concept: unimpeded product design . (frictionless product design) in the article, he compared the minimalist design and unimpeded ways:
Unobstructed design and minimalist design are related, but not exactly the same. The two concepts are often put together, triggering some difficult disputes.
Some designs are very simple, but users are very resistant to use. For example, the Linux command line is a typical example. Its interface is very simple, simple commands can be combined to complete a variety of complex operations. But if you want to use Linux well, you must know when and what operations to perform. For ordinary users, the threshold is very high and the resistance is quite large. Minimalism is great, but the pursuit of minimalism often leads to great difficulty in use. Unix uses gadgets to collaborate with a logic that is very simple and can accomplish tasks well, but for users, it requires too much skill and too much resistance to use.
The minimalist design requires the user to operate the interface more concisely.
The unimpeded design requires less effort for the user to use.
This is a key difference that many people don’t understand. Today, when MVP and minimalist product design concepts are very popular, it is important to recognize the difference between the two. What you want is not necessarily minimalism, but something else. Before, I could not find a suitable term to summarize this “something else”. The concept of “frictionless design” proposed by Sinofsky is very suitable. The model he proposed to reduce user resistance is also worth learning and internalizing for all product people.
In the eyes of laymen, the simpler the design looks more high-end. But minimalism often leads to higher resistance to use. For example, a door that has no handle and can only be opened in one direction looks very simple, but the door handle is precisely the basis for the user to judge whether to “push” or “pull”.
The first-generation mobile apps made by many excellent web-side products are far inferior to the web-version services because the design of these apps is too simple. It is true that the small size of mobile phones and the way of interacting with touch screens require developers to make some necessary simplifications, but some companies have made minimalist apps that lack even basic functions, and the entire app looks lame. Whether the basic function is realized is the criterion for distinguishing MVP and junk products.
Many of the apps I download now advocate minimalist design. But I am very confused when using these apps, and I don’t know how to operate. I have learned how to operate some apps, but I will forget them the next time I use them (except for those apps that I use every day or almost every day, many apps can easily forget how to use them after using them once). Now, many applications use various gestures, but these gestures are difficult to find. Many apps use icons without text labels, which look very confusing, just like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Conversely, if you pay too much attention to the opinions of early users and heavy users, your product may eventually become more and more bloated and complicated. I once heard a saying: Every user only uses 20% of Excel’s functions, but everybody uses 20% differently.
Overly complex products will cause other problems. If a company provides a product or service that exceeds the needs of the market, a simpler, less functional, and cheaper competitor will appear to share your market share. The most popular apps on the market now are generally free, so competitors can’t beat you by low prices, but use simpler and easier-to-use products to attract users who don’t need special features.
In short, reducing the resistance during use is crucial for product developers. In the current market environment, the rewards of developing a simple and easy-to-use product will be higher, and it will be easier to open up a new market, even if your competitors do much more features than you.
