I like it simple when I’m doing complicated things. (One of my users)

I had always heard this one a little differently – in particular, “Make simple things simple and complex things possible.” I think this user is really on to something though.

This particular user was talking about a complex field – securities trading. I forget what exactly he was trying to do, but there are plenty of crazy trades investors can make out there. Take options, for example. Would you believe you can do strangles, condors, iron butterflies, naked spreads …?  Indeed, you can – I am not making this stuff up!

Now, what I think he was getting at – i.e., what he was trying to tell me, a seasoned user researcher – was that he was trying to combine two bits of cognitive load. First was the particular trade he was trying to do. Second was trying to translate that into something on the particular UI he was staring at. Wow, that’s a lot!

Now, “making simple things simple and complex things possible” would really mean just providing him with the functionality to make that particular trade possible. Is it really okay to just leave it at that though? Isn’t there something else we could do for him?

Now, I do realize that that original quote was really directed at not designing for the exception. But I do like to go one step further in cases like these. And that’s to suggest a wizard.

So, instead of just saying, “Have at it,” what I like to do is engage the user in a bit of conversation. Before I can do that, though, I have to get a real feel of what that conversation’s really all about and all the places where it might lead.

And that’s why I always suggest some pretty heavy-duty task analysis before undertaking anything even remotely like this. What are the actual steps? What are the different options the user has? What is their ultimate goal? Doing that allows you to lay out the conversation in a way so that it all makes sense to the user and actually appears manageable to them. 

And that goes whether you’re really creating a wizard, or are instead doing a chatbot, a dynamic form, or simply laying out a form or set of screens in a logical way …  or, really, doing anything where the user may be struggling with the task already – let alone trying to make sense of your UI. Indeed, don’t think of it as creating x, y, or z, but as reducing cognitive load, maybe even helping fashion a mental model.

In so many words … Don’t just throw it at them, like a maze! Go out of your way to help them make their way through it – like the incredible wizard that you are!

Just in case you thought I was making that stuff up