The KISS principle states that the simpler something is, the better it will work. The phrase ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ (KISS) was coined by an engineer called Kelly Johnson at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, an aircraft manufacturer, in the 1960s. Johnson told designers that the war planes they were designing had to be able to be repaired in the field with simple tools and basic mechanic’s training. If their design principles weren’t easy to understand, they would become obsolete in combat conditions and therefore pointless.
The benefits of simplicity apply to everything from the basics of graphic design to UX design principles and offer enormous advantages to a website. Here are five reasons to keep your design principles simple, stupid.
Websites with simple design principles get more conversions
Complicated websites with excessive ornamentation put people off. A clean, easy to navigate design allows customers to make their purchase or find the information they need with ease. Humans are impatient creatures and will navigate away at the first sign of difficulty. Adhering to principles of website minimalism puts the focus of your site on the user journey and conversion points, discouraging users from straying and therefore driving sales.
Simple design is timeless
Design trends come and go rapidly, making new styles outdated as quickly as they arrive. Choosing a simple, minimalist design for your website means that you won’t have to update it on a regular basis as it will always look fresh. A good example of this is the Google homepage, which is incredibly simple and has changed very little since it was launched two decades ago. It is iconic, instantly recognisable and will never go out of fashion.
Simple design meets your users’ expectations
We now have years of experience in using websites and have come to expect them to adhere to certain design principles and layouts. For example, users will usually expect to see a few specific items in specific areas of the site, such as a clickable logo in the top left corner to return to the homepage, a navigation bar at the top of the page and contact information bottom of the page. If your website design strays too far from the expected layout, users will become confused and frustrated, and go elsewhere.
Simple websites load faster
A site that loads quickly improves visitor satisfaction levels and increases the number of conversions. Research has shown that 79% of shoppers who are unhappy with site performance are less likely to purchase from the same site again and will abandon websites that take longer than three seconds to load. On top of this, Google uses site speed as part of their SEO algorithm and will rank it higher the faster it loads. Simple design will ensure your website loads quickly and increase conversions.
Simple website design is easier to maintain and adapt
The more complicated a website is, the more opportunity there is for it to go wrong. Simpler design means simpler code, which saves your web developer hours of maintenance and therefore saves you money. If you need to update your current content, add pages or change information, it will be easier and quicker to make those changes.
