Why make it simple when we can make it complicated?

Observation: Most people (e.g. "designers") have a natural tendency to make things complicated. Why? Mostly for the next two reasons:

1. They don't really know the intended users of their website/application/product. They do what I call "suppository design": design that is purely based on suppositions, misconceptions or false perceptions.

2. They focus on extreme cases, those that occur less than 20% of the time... but those on which we'll spend 80% of our efforts and budget. Usually, extreme-case obsessed designers say something like: "One time, I had this case where..." or "We once had this client who...". Okay. Okay. It did happen... but probably only once in years! This is not a good reason to sabotage a simple solution.

Well, I really think I'm becoming more and more a disciple of John Pawson and John Maeda... or maybe it's just common sense!

Walls as a problem-solving space

I taught UX design from 1993 to 2006 at Université Laval in Québec city and sometimes, when I'm really lucky, former students take the time to write to me. That's what Jacinthe Croisetière did. She works as project manager and lead graphic designer at De Marque. Here is her message (translated and edited):