Invisible
Design
In my opinion, the pinnacle of great experience design is invisible design - when your interface design and flow is so intuitive that they become seamless and unobtrusive, allowing people to concentrate and complete their tasks with ease.
It's like that feeling of being completely immersed in the moment or in a flow, and suddenly, it's done. People experience this when using products with invisible designs; they complete their tasks effortlessly.
Invisible design doesn't mean the lack of aesthetic appeal. Instead, it breaks down the complicated and strikes a harmonious balance between beauty, practical features, and thoughtful flows, which then creates an experience that's fluid, smooth and effortless.
Why Invisible Design
Why invisible design?
While designing innovative features can be exciting, my focus is on the subtle impacts of invisible design – enabling people to complete complex tasks seamlessly and to create space for deeper connections. Invisible design lets people step back from technology, enriching their presence in the moment.
Like the 2010 film "Her," a forward-thinking work that accurately predicted our current AI surge, showcasing technology's ability to perform complex tasks with a simple voice command.
My aim goes beyond aesthetics. I strive to create designs that are not only visually appealing or memorable but also genuinely useful, considerate, and potentially life-changing.
1.
Less Is So
Much More
The goal here is to reduce cognitive load so that people can get to where they need as fast and easy as possible. There is only so much we can see and process at a time. Hick's Law also tells us that the higher the number of options presented to a person the longer time it takes for them to make a decision.
What is that one thing people need to do here? Let that be the only thing that people do and do well at.
Apply:
Keep number of options minimal to avoid decision paralysis.
Remember to give a hierarchical structure and prioritise carefully if dealing with many options.
If dealing with plenty of information, consider presenting gradually as when people need them so to avoid overwhelming people with too much information upfront.
Remove unnecessary elements and complexity so there's little to no distractions to make interactions more intuitive.
2.
Consistency
For Familiarity
People come to your platform with preexisting knowledge and expectations shaped by their interactions with other websites. If you're pushing boundaries and redefining norms, it's essential to be mindful of the existing design conventions and consider how people can transition and adapt to your unique designs.
This way, people can experience a sense of familiarity with your product or service, making them feel comfortable and at ease.
Apply:
Use a conventional taxonomy structure and use the same terminology everywhere in your web and app.
Maintain consistency in prominent design elements and components like navigation panels, icons, buttons and more.
Strive for the same page overall layout and information hierarchy everywhere in your web and app.
Maintain consistency in interaction patterns.
3.
Simplify The
Complicated
Each app or website inherently involves a degree of complexity - it's part of the package. However, great product design handles all the intricacies in the background while maintaining a straightforward and intuitive front end.
Apply:
Prefills, Autofills and Refills for form fillings or quote-and-buy. Use MyInfo or leverage existing customer's data.
Timely validations to signify and to guide.
Auto computation of numbers like total sums, yearly/monthly breakdowns and income after tax.
Anything else necessary that can streamline and simplify tasks, even if it means new API development or feature.