Recently I revisited “The Law of Simplicity” by John Maeda. He is a graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist at the MIT Media Lab. In the book, John proposes 10 laws for simplifying complex systems in business and life.

Although the book are mostly focused on product design, it could be applied to anything especially software development. It doesn’t matter whether you are coding or designing simplicity will always work and sale. Simpler code means less bug and less maintenance cost. Simpler interface means easier to learn and use.

The 10 laws are

Law 1: Reduce
The Simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction

Law 2: Organize
Organization makes a system of many appear fewer

Law 3: Time
Savings in time feel like simplicity

Law 4: Learn
Knowledge makes everything simpler

Law 5: Differences
Simplicity and complexity need each other

Law 6: Context
What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral

Law 7: Emotion
More emotions are better than less

Law 8: Trust
In simplicity we trust

Law 9: Failure
Some things can never be made simple

Law 10: The One
Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful

Considering the only way users can communicate with your application is through the interface, interface design then should be one of the most important part of any application. A good interface will enhance the experience, usability, effectiveness or even success of your system.

From the book Designing the User Interface by Ben Shneiderman, he pointed out 8 rules to guide us to good interaction design.

1. Strive for consistency.
Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations; identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent commands should be employed throughout.
2 Enable frequent users to use shortcuts.
As the frequency of use increases, so do the user’s desires to reduce the number of interactions and to increase the pace of interaction. Abbreviations, function keys, hidden commands, and macro facilities are very helpful to an expert user.

3 Offer informative feedback.
For every operator action, there should be some system feedback. For frequent and minor actions, the response can be modest, while for infrequent and major actions, the response should be more substantial.

4 Design dialog to yield closure.
Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions gives the operators the satisfaction of accomplishment, a sense of relief, the signal to drop contingency plans and options from their minds, and an indication that the way is clear to prepare for the next group of actions.

5 Offer simple error handling.
As much as possible, design the system so the user cannot make a serious error. If an error is made, the system should be able to detect the error and offer simple, comprehensible mechanisms for handling the error.

6 Permit easy reversal of actions.
This feature relieves anxiety, since the user knows that errors can be undone; it thus encourages exploration of unfamiliar options. The units of reversibility may be a single action, a data entry, or a complete group of actions.

7 Support internal locus of control.
Experienced operators strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the system and that the system responds to their actions. Design the system to make users the initiators of actions rather than the responders.

8 Reduce short-term memory load.
The limitation of human information processing in short-term memory requires that displays be kept simple, multiple page displays be consolidated, window-motion frequency be reduced, and sufficient training time be allotted for codes, mnemonics, and sequences of actions.

I think it does not matter whether you are developing for the web or desktop. These rules should always help when making any design decision. But as web applications are becoming more and more interactive and complex, we need to make sure the experience of them are improving and not degrading.

Source from Wikipedia