Less Is More

A very wise Winston Churchill is renown for having stated: "I am going to give a long speech as I have not had time to write a short one."

I often find it far harder to create a simple and intuitive website than to develop a complex, cutting-edge one.

Think about the last time you purchased anything on the internet. What was the site? Why did you buy there, and not somewhere else?

Chances are that you purchased online because it was simpler and more convenient, otherwise you would have taken the effort to drive down to your local shopping mall and buy your item of interest there.

In order for your business to be successful online, your website needs three things, in addition to the obvious technical and design prerequisites:

• Simplicity
• Enough information to make an informed decision
• Peace of mind that our experience will be risk-free

Having designed web applications for the past ten years, I've come to realise that one of the hardest things to do when creating a new website is NOT to be too fancy. Sure, all those bells and whistles might impress computer science degree graduates and art majors, but at the end of the day, all we really want is simplicity and easy access to information to make an informed decision about our purchases, free of any unforeseen nasty surprises.

So, the next time you have someone upgrade your business' website, or develop one for someone else, keep in mind that when it comes to simplicity, often less truly is more.