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Artclie on simplicity in design, written by Daniel Rowley. With 10 years of experience, graphic and web designer
Daniel Rowley is uniquely qualified to help you with graphic design projects small and large. |
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Simplicity
My theory is this: If there are too many objects to look at, you simply do not see any of them. Your mind says, "many".
The human mind has a limitation when it comes to processing visual information. Everyone has their own threshold of visual consumption large or small, but everyone has limits.
Choices, but not too many choices.
Ever see a kid in a candy store? A 21 year old guy in the beer isle? Drooling and stumped. They're trying to take in all that over-hyped over-colorized data, but they're stuck on overload mode. They know they want it, and it's clearly being marketed towards them, but with too many objects... tough to move in any direction. Even if they have a specific brand in mind, it's still startling to see it all on a wall in front of you like that. American Grocery Stores are bastions for this behavior, people woozy with choices.
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When designing visual communication for an audience, if you intend to have the audience understand your message, you have to keep it simple. Like the old addage: Keep It Simple Stupid. Nowadays it's more like Keep It Simple, I have a short attention span, and you only have my attention for 6 seconds. We can blame tv, or technology, or advertisers for inundating us with commercialism, information, and advertising, but beyond the blame, there is truth. Since people have a limit to visual consumption, you must adhere to certain refinements in visual communication. The audience will appreciate it. People don't want all that clutter in their lives.
Have you heard the term 'clean', as it applies to a page layout? Clean is simple, that usually equates to effective communication.
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CASE STUDY
[image from cingular.com]
A good example of keeping it simple. "Raising the Bar" the tagline from Cingular Wireless. They could say, "your one-stop-shop for phones, mobile phone coverage plans, phones that take pictures and video, and text messages, some with keyboards, all varieties of brands and locations..."
But they don't. And they escalate their highest priority to Logo status. Get the message out that AT&T is on the way out, and cingular is in, and better than ever!
Raising the bar is a great tagline. It alludes to both the standards in their industry, and how they are leaders pushing the envelope, and to their technology, and to that safe ~warm and fuzzy~ that you will always have coverage with our company, that they're looking out for you.
All of this is well executed marketing. It may or may not have basis in fact. I personally use T-Mobile so I wouldn't know. But I suspect that most of these phone companies are largely identical. All have their no-coverage spots that you'll find, and all have similar services and rates and phones. So how do you convert a person into a customer? You tell them you're raising the bar, you tell them you're the best, and you keep it simple.
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