"Things should be made as simple as possible -- but no simpler," said Albert Einstein.

The goodies of simplicity are well-known among experienced systems designers. And many of the things that are "right" with simpler software systems are also applicable to Web pages and site designs.

• Simpler is easier to use
  
• Simpler is more stable, and less prone to error
  
• Simpler is more compatible
  
• Simpler is easier to maintain
  

• Easier to use
  Simpler task mean easier to learn and master, and that make people happy. How many Websites do you come across a day and how many of them are new to you? Each new site will require as minimum effort of you to find out how to get information. If they are designed in simplicity in mind, that can light up your day and not cracking up your head.
  
  In fact, Internet newbies make up a substantial portion of most Websites' surfers. If the site is complicatedly design, a likelihood of chasing away this portion of your visitors.
  
  Too, not many visitors are browsing your Website everyday, and that can mean "new" to them when they come back to your Website. If they face difficulty navigating, most likely they just never come back.
  
  
• More stable
  Think of a Website as a software system. How do you feel your software crash on the half way you are using it? What happens there is error after you submit your information (after clicking the "Submit" button)? People will yell "damn"!
  By nature, a complex system is more prone to error. Complex system also introduce more possibilities of "breakdown" and more difficult to resolve. A long server down time may drive your visitors away and never come back. On the other hand a complex Web page is more likely to encounter client-side error within the visitor's browser.
  
  
• More compatible
  Your visitors are come from all around the world. They are using all type of Web browsers ranging the top few such as Internet Explorer to some that little known. There are some text-only browsers too such as Lynx. Web technology is changing fast as more new ones are coming to the market (note the WAP for mobile phone). It is getting more difficult to tweak a Web page that work in all types of browser. Thus it is advisable for the Web developers to consider the accessibility of the Internet users to their Web pages.
  
  
• Easier to maintain
  A good Website should be updated with new content as frequent as weekly if not daily. A complex site mean more resources is required to maintain compare to simpler elaborated site. A simpler, more compatible approach that avoid a dozen of different "optimization" would allow the designers to devote their time to creating new content instead of rebuilding their site every time a new browser version is released.
  

So what with complex Web pages?

• Take up users effort
  Why make your visitors work hard to get your site visited? Why not giving them good time instead? When your Website user friendliness goes down, the amount of visitor will go down too.
  
  
• Take up users tolerance
  As mentioned newbies take up a substantial portion of Internet users today. They most probably not technically savvy and have very low tolerance of using new system. Other factors such as download speed and expensive access fee, users becoming more impatience with complexity, error-prone and overloaded designs.
  

Simpler, faster, easier designs will be more appealing to more users.


Source: Frank Cheah