Your website could probably use some love.

Why not give it a little KISS right now? Valentine’s Day is almost here, come on, just a little smooch? Sorry, but we’re going to have to interrupt this special moment for an explanation meant by KISS. The “Keep It Simple Stupid” rule for good design strategy. Here are some tips to simplify your online space.

This rule is often heard in the art and design worlds, but the beauty of refined simplicity is universal. Think about the often quoted line: “I’m sorry this letter is so long, I didn’t have time to make it shorter.” This is a fun and powerful point, attributed by many but most likely from Pascal, that the raw initial draft can suffice but it is not as good as it would be with good editing.

How about the quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, brevity is the soul of wit. Reading further in the passage, what is often considered a reference to witty humor, is actually a measure of Hamlet’s sanity. In this case, wit meant the presence of coherent thought as in the opposite use of the term,  witless.

Have you ever been near someone who isn’t appearing very intelligent, and yet they won’t. stop. talking? Same idea.

One more quote along those lines, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” Abraham Lincoln

You see, less is more. Sorry, another applicable quote, this one by Robert Browning, slipped in there. It is a really universal theme.

 

Why is simple so much better?

The Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui seeks balance and harmony. It translates to wind-water in English. It is a technique of balancing many elements, such as magnetic polarity, season, mass and the positions of the stars and planets. This is only a brief reference to a large concept, but the idea of arranging elements to reach a greater effect applies here.

 

Entropy – is the concept from thermodynamics that things gradually decline toward disorder if left to natural forces. We humans are given the ability to employ our intellect to the purpose of refining and ordering the world around us. Also, by adding some additional qualities, rather than things, to your work, you can maximize your life and your work’s impact.

• clarity – directly express your purpose
• focus – puts the attention on the right thing and saves time
• elimination – declutter, remove distractions
• effectiveness – put quality over quantity
• tranquility – allow the mind to find rest and peace

 

Cluttered thinking is less happy. This is one of the reasons Apple has people lined up around their building, waiting for their next major product release. They restrain their design and make the experience simple and quality. This discipline has turned their customers into raving fans.

 

Okay I get it. Now how do I add simplicity into my website?

Keep all of the above theory in mind as you take a fresh look at your website, try to see it from a new visitor’s point of view.

 

Is the site intuitive?  Is it blatantly obvious what the site is for? Can you tell in a glance what you do here? These two questions, tied with the elimination step above, might cause you to remove entire sections of your site. If you take a part away, will anyone miss it?

 

How is your white space?  Remember what was said about tranquility? Spread the content out so that each thing is given appropriate importance.

 

Are images working for your message?  Even if it is a tasteful stock photo, an image conveys a tone and produces an emotional response. As long as you make sure that they are quality additions and not crowding your written content, good use of photography can really help your site.

 

Is color being used responsibly? One of the most valuable pages in a company’s brand’s style guide is the approved color pallet. Limiting the color helps identify the company, many times even in the absence of words. Just because you’re paying for full color, doesn’t mean you should use all of them. This limitation applied when you had to prepare a separate pass through a printing press. But now there is no status gained by throwing frivolous color all over the place.

 

Are you carefully considering the valuable real estate of your website? Ads, sidebars, redundant menus hinder more than help. They take up valuable space where you can be selling your ideas, your services or your products.

The perfect homepage shares just the right amount of information and places it prominently. The idea of keeping your important message above the fold is a concept borrowed from the days of the printed letter. When you pulled the letter out of the envelope, it was typically folded three times. The best letters stated the meaning in that top panel. It also acts as a hook to motivate the reader to read on down the page. In websites it is also referred to as the first view area. That area that you see when the page first loads, before a visitor scrolls down. This is the most valuable section of your website. Many websites just waste this area.

 

The wizard of Madison Avenue, David Ogilvy, in his classic advertising books instructed that a coupon, which is the important, action provoking portion of a printed ad, should not go down in the corner. That is where most people expect it to go. That is where it will be more easily cut out which would causes less damage to the page. Ogilvy says that your best position for a coupon is centered and in the top portion. Front and center! He knew how to get the important message across. This may be counterintuitive, but that is the point. Putting a coupon here, certainly would make it stand out.

 

A clear message increases conversion.

Now we get to the primary benefit. Whether your website is there to sell products or to tell the world about your service – whatever your motivation, this process of keeping it simple gets you better results.

 

Reduce Choices – If you’ve been to a restaurant with too many options, you know what happens. You labor and stew over what to order. You pour your attention over the hundreds of options. Then, when the server will wait no longer, you state what you want. As soon as they walk away, you regret your choice. Buyer’s remorse is one symptom of having too many options. This is an academic concept called Hick’s Law. If you have few options, there is less time involved in teh selection. The customer can concentrate on the best things and they will have an easier path to becoming satisfied.

 

Are you willing to purge items that are never clicked? There are tools that you can add to your website that track how visitors interact with it. These use the concept of a Heat Map, to show what the “hottest” sections of your site are.

If visitors aren’t using certain sections, get rid of them. Any items you remove, clear the way for your customer to buy whatever it is that you’re selling.