I have noticed a recent trend towards super simplistic design/software. In general I applaud the intentional thought put into streamlining and building more intuitive interfaces into apps. When building apps I have always tried to keep the KISS principle in mind… Keep It Simple Stupid. I think realizing that your users aren’t necessarily technical and that they may not think the same way you do can help the success of an application or site by leaps and bounds.

That being said, I have noticed this trend is being applied EVERYWHERE… and sometimes in the wrong places. If you are building a site for a more savvy user base I say add in the features. I want RSS. I want social bookmarking. I want on forums to be able to mark all read. I want to subscribe to articles and threads. I want upload images. I want to have a HTML signatures. I am not talking about simplistic design elements, but actual functionality. Keeping things simple for the sake of just trying to be trendy in the whole minimalistic fad just makes it harder for your more savvy user base to use your site.

One particular example that comes to mind is a forum site I visit for web designers. This particular forum site has a relatively geeky following and most of the members are verse in the web community lingo and methods. The site uses a software called Vanilla, which is very extensible and modular. At it’s core it is very simplistic and minimalistic compared to other forum software like phpBB. This particular instance of Vanilla is configured in a very bare and minimalistic way. While this is all fine and dandy if it were a message board for new mommies or conversation about cooking recipes, for a web designers forum I find it very tedious to use as I can’t easily mark all conversations read, I can’t make friends lists of posters I want to follow, links don’t automatically open up in a new browser, I don’t easily have a control panel showing me my activity or comments on posts I have been involved in. While I am not saying that Vanilla can’t do this… in fact I am fairly sure it can, the web site owner has made a decision to simplify the user interface … KISS it … and for this particular instance I feel it is a detriment to the user base’s experience.

I think there is a fine line in too little and too much when it comes to features, functions and elements in design. While I understand the drive to keep things simple, I urge all designers, web site owners and application builders to think long and hard about who their users are as well as what experience are they providing. Thinking of your site’s needs individually versus following the collective lemmingness of web design fads can make or break a site/app, you will provide a better experience to your customers, subscribers and visitors.