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Keep it Simple, Stupid.

As most people immersed in the web world and in the business world know, UX refers to the user experience.

When we talk about UX, we talk about all the elements that make up a system, such as web page, applications, products, services, community, among many others; They represent the user experience. The objective of the companies is to obtain positive, predictable, consistent and desirable results with UX, which may include the user interface, industrial design, interactions, etc.

The UX design is a strategic multi-phase design process, which aims to create a product or website that is attractive, easy to use and easy to understand for customers or users. Through the UX design process, we arrive at the correct user interface solution.

Simplicity on UX Design

The philosophy of creating simple products that are easy to handle and understand, has its origin years ago, but it remains in force since its objective is to provide customer satisfaction with simple but attractive, functional but easy to understand, effective but easy to handle designs. Simply put, what we want with simplicity in the UX design is to provide a pleasant and unique experience to users.

Websites with a multi-level menu and complex structure end up confusing and complicating the user experience. This leaves as a result that visitors do not wish to interact with that web site again.

It is here where simplicity comes into play. People in their day to day live busy and attached to schedules and activities that they must meet, which is why they least want to have to interact with complicated websites with complex functions. The best option for UX designers is to keep everything simple.

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Kiss – the beginning of a simple design

The term was used for the first time in the US Naval Force, and is attributed to Kelly Johnson, who served as the lead engineer for a secret operation that designed the first spy plane during the Cold War.

Kelly told his designers that whatever they designed should be repaired in the field with basic tools and simple mechanics training. If the products they made were not easy to understand, they could end a life or become useless in combat.

Kelly’s phrase was “keep it simple stupid”, this was the origin of the acronym “Kiss”.

Kiss as a UX design philosophy

Today the Kiss philosophy is used in different professions such as UX design and software engineering. This work philosophy or methodology states that the systems perform much better if they are kept as simple as possible.

“Keep it simple stupid” has never been formalized or presented as a design principle or philosophy, but it focuses on the idea that if customers or consumers cannot understand the product or service, they cannot use it properly. If this occurs and the product or service cannot be used by the majority of customers, the product or service cannot actively participate in the market.

From the user’s point of view, this philosophy indicates that people are always busy, so they prefer and want simple, easy to use and easy to understand things. In case of encountering a complex design, they will quickly put it aside.

On the other hand, the Kiss principle also recognizes that product factories or service companies can reduce costs and production times by keeping things as simple as possible.

The purpose of every UX design should be to provide a simple and useful user experience, and to achieve this there is nothing better than a simple and easy to handle design.

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