Hide Complexity in Design

If you can’t kill a complex feature, the next best thing is to hide it. Too often, rarely used yet complex features take up more screen real estate than frequently used yet simple features. This shouldn’t be. A good user interface should make the most common tasks the most prominent and then hide rare tasks so that they don’t get in the way.

When we were redesigning our content management system, we weren’t able to kill one complex feature in particular: the bulk edit function. In the previous version of the CMS, an entire column of a main screen was devoted to the bulk edit basket. The feature consumed about 30% of the screen real estate, but we found that very few people actually used it. Our solution was to introduce a single icon with a number beside it indicating how many items were in the basket. Clicking on the icon or number revealed the list of items in the basket through a modal dialog. This saved a huge amount of space and prevented the majority of users from being distracted from their primary task.

“When a small, unassuming object exceeds our expectations, we are not only surprised but pleased.”