Complex Design: First Make It Effective, Then Wow ‘Em

Bob Moll, Friday, October 13, 2006 @ 1:40 pm

In creating any kind of complex product, workflow or design it is often difficult to do everything at once, or even in a first version. This can lead to tremendous efforts failing to generate expected business value. How can this be avoided? Tony Antin, a veteran of advertising strategy, offers a useful piece of advice in his book Great Print Advertising. The advice, in the advertising context, is simple: first make an effective ad, and then try to turn it into a great ad.

The advertising advice can apply to almost any designed product. The thesis is simple but subtle. Not all effective ads are great, but no great ad gets that status without being effective. Effectiveness is a requirement, and probably a prerequisite, for greatness.

The common mistake made is the assumption that striving for greatness automatically gives you effectiveness. Not so. Effectiveness is often a matter of sound strategy, diligent research, clear objectives, detailed architecture or structure, good decision-making and validation as you go that your assumptions are correct. Where effectiveness may be a primarily left-brain pursuit, greatness is likely to have right-brain qualities. Great products become great often because of the intangible, the creative element that goes beyond the commodity aspect of the product and reaches the user in an unanticipated way.

So what is the bottom line? When designing for complexity, make sure you’ve got an effective idea or effective set of ideas first, then build them into something more. 

user experience design

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