Aesthetic and Minimalist Design (Usability Heuristic #8)

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Don Norman cited this famous William Morris quote at the beginning of his book Emotional Design¹ and it captures the essence of the 8th usability heuristic: aesthetic and minimalist design:

Interfaces should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Why Not Just “Minimalist” Design? Do Aesthetics Really Matter?

1. Visuals are essential to establishing good first impressions. As much as we would like otherwise,  people do “judge the book by its cover.” On average, users make an aesthetics-driven first impression about a site in the 50 milliseconds after landing on it, which is about 10x faster than the time it takes to read. So, unfortunately, teams cannot rely only on good, usable functionality and content for an experience to be perceived as usable.

2. The perception of the experience can be more memorable than the experience itself. As Don Norman has said, “attractive things work better.” This first impression is so powerful, that people often recall beautiful designs as easy to use despite potential usability issues that may have actually come up during use.

3. Aesthetics establish and reinforce your brand’s identity. When used consistently, aesthetics can establish or reinforce a brand and its credibility.

Minimalist Design, Maximum Utility 

Let’s take a look at the other component of the heuristic, minimalist design.

Keep in mind, when this heuristic was written in 1994, there was no minimalist web-design trend. So, for the purposes of this heuristic, minimalist does not refer to a site that is following the minimalism trend.

For context, in 1994, the Internet largely consisted of crowded web pages, full to the brim of relevant and irrelevant information alike — “noisy” design, so to speak. A minimalist design, according to this heuristic, is one that limits the amount of “noise” an interface has in order to emphasize necessary information; it is a design that seeks to simplify interfaces by removing unnecessary elements or content that does not support user tasks.

An important corollary to this definition is: a minimalist design contains all necessary elements to support user tasks. In other words, a good design should strive to maximize utility and usability with just enough elements on the page.

Having too few elements would inhibit utility and usability with the absence of necessary elements, while too many elements will obscure those necessary elements. Even if our intentions are good as we smother our users in information that could be useful “at some point,” if our users cannot find or discover the necessary elements, as far as they are concerned, those elements do not exist.

Thus, minimalist visual design (sometimes referred to as flat design) does not always satisfy this heuristic by default (and is often guilty of removing necessary elements), and similarly, designs that satisfy this heuristic are not obligated to be minimalist.  

How To Make an Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

Communicate visually by using known design principles. 

There are many visual-design attributes that impact whether a design will be aesthetically pleasing, but focusing on five main visual-design principles can ensure effective visual communication.

Limit the amount of “noise” in your design.

Maximize the “signal”, that is the number of elements with high informational value – labels with high information scent, plain language, high-resolution images, clear signifiers, or helper text. Minimize the “noise”—elements with low informational value such as low-resolution, cluttered images, irrelevant information, technical terms with no explanation, and anything meant for “decoration” only. Avoid multipurpose visual cues (e.g., the same visual treatment for links and unclickable text) and don’t overdo font/color variation to ensure that your information is communicated clearly. Defer to standards and conventions, and communicate; don’t decorate.

For particular or less common tasks, consider progressively disclosing features or information as it is needed, rather than showing it all at once, to limit unneeded detail. Every piece of content should have a purpose, including negative space.

Leverage universal visual patterns that carry positive connotations.

According to Ingrid Fetell Lee’s research² on positive aesthetics, people tend to perceive landscapes with water basins and varied topography as beautiful, no matter what culture they come from. This phenomenon does not stop at landscapes, but extends to many other visuals: baby-like facial traits, plants, rounded shapes, vibrant, saturated colors, confetti, fireworks, and so on. These may sound like a random smattering of joyful visuals, but what all these visuals have in common is a promise of fulfilling human needs: food, water, shelter, safety, warmth, companionship, and community. For example, vibrant colors in nature typically relate to fruits and vegetables (promise of food) and scenic landscapes with lakes or rivers promise access to water. (Check out our full-day class Persuasive and Emotional Design for other delightful aesthetic ideas)

Accept that beauty is sometimes in the eye of the beholder (or persona).

While certain visuals are universally accepted and celebrated, the more specific your message in your interface, the less universal your visuals will be. After all, in order for information to be relevant to one audience, it is possibly irrelevant to other audiences. What might be trendy or interesting for one group of people might not be useful for others. This means you must know your personas very well, and design specifically for what your high-priority personas might value. Also, keep in mind cultural differences (for example, Western European wedding dresses are typically all white, whereas white attire symbolizes death and funerals in India, and might not create the same emotional response in that audience). While that might mean more work for your UX team, remember that to cater to a global audience, you must reflect beauty in a global context, and tell global stories.

Conclusion

Usability is both an art and a science. While cognitive and behavioral science dictates many usability principles, aesthetics play an important role and impact the perception and memory of your designs. Minimalism goes much deeper than looks or trends: it maximizes utility and usability by allowing people to find what they need when they need it. Lastly, a picture can say a thousand words… but, only if it’s a useful picture.

References

¹ Don Norman, Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things (book)

² Ingrid Fetell Lee, Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness