Is it time for a radical simplification of digital design?
Ten years ago, Instagram was an easy place. You could share photos, you could view photos, and that was it. Fast forward to 2021 and it's an animal with lots of tentacles. There are roles, stories, story highlights, posts, IGTV, marketplaces, promoted posts, and direct messages.
It is similar with many other digital products that have become an integral part of our online life. With the increasing spread of functions, these platforms have become more complex and overwhelming for many people. This is reflected in their design: apps, websites, and streaming services are full of options, menus, and buttons that often make them harder to understand and use – even for users with digital literacy. Services that we used to love for one thing now do 12, and often none of them do very well.
Matt Rice, co-founder and creative director of Digital Product Studio Sennep, agrees that these platforms are becoming more complex. After the last Instagram update, he struggled figuring out how to post a picture or check notifications – two basic features that support the overall purpose of Instagram. "I think they are overwhelmed," he tells CR. "It was very easy when the main purpose was to share pictures, follow people you like, follow friends and family to see what they're up to … but it definitely feels bloated. These new ones Updates are more company driven than user experience. "
We took this approach of doing one thing well in the app boom and it seems to have fallen by the wayside