Help Stamp Out Cluttered Websites
Adding clutter to websites hurts more than helps
by Reid Neubert
Once upon a time, when I was vice president and creative director at Design Center in San Francisco, we had a wonderful presentation that showed the transformation of a cereal box ... and not for the better. It started as a clean, well designed package. Then one by one, banners, special offer bursts and other distractions – interrupters they are called – were added: "New!" "Surprise Inside" "Special Offer" "20% More Included Free," etc., etc.
In the end, the package was so cluttered that the brand was practically lost. It was a whole different package, giving a very different impression! Adding more "information," all of which competes for the shopper's attention, doesn't work. In fact, it detracts from the appeal of the product and the brand.
From Packages to Websites
Today I see this same sort of problem on websites. Too many distractions and too many options: animation, changing images, announcements, highlighted links, news that often isn't news, sponsored links, advertisements galore, all vying for our attention. That is in addition to the main page content and navigation.
These cluttered websites suffer from the same design and communication problems as the cereal box, as this video demonstrates:
Simplicity Stands Out
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Just because you can add all those distractions to your website doesn't mean you should, any more than you should add all those interrupters to a cereal box.
Antoine de saint Exupery said it eloquently: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
In a sea of chaos, simplicity is what stands out.
What is Your Favorite Site?
In order to help judge my approach to things, a prospective business partner once asked me what my favorite site was. I immediately answered it was the then nascent site, Google. Google's simplicity was a telling comparison with Yahoo, which at the time looked like this:
Yahoo's home page in 2004
There is no debating how well Google has done sticking with that wonderfully uncluttered home page. Yahoo has since improved it's page design immensely, but it is still a combination news site, portal, and search page. There is no question, of course, which approach has been the more successful.
Now Bing is coming on strong, and it's main page is also thoughtfully designed and uncluttered. Bing adds pictorial interest to the page and has quite a few links, actually, but they are secondary to the main search function, so the approach works very well.
The best sites have a clear focus and eye path on the page. Things are pretty much where people expect them to be. Adding extraneous stuff causes distractions from the eye path and unwanted friction to the buying or conversion process.
Choices are a good thing. Too many choices are distracting, and even paralyzing.
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Copyright 2011 by Reid M. Neubert. All rights reserved.