I've often wondered "why do people make things so complicated?" Don't they realize that I'm a complete idiot? A moron!

Most of the time you will see many designs that have so much crap that you lose the message. Should a design clutter something up because it's "savvy" or "looks good"? Sorry to say it, but I live by a simple rule. Keeping things so simple that an idiot understands it. Remember, I'm an idiot too.

I'm not saying you or your customers are truly idiots, but what if you understood something one way and your customer understood it another? Guess who looks like a real idiot? YOU DO! So how would a designer approach any misunderstandings? Simplicity. It's the key to all designs. You must assume everyone is a complete idiot. That idiot is your target audience. That is the person buying what your selling. That idiot is the one looking at your ad campaign. That idiot is keeping your customer's doors open - and yours!

Too many people who aren't real designers don't seem to think, for lack of a better term, "outside of the box". Your customer is outside of that box. It's your job to be out there with them. Hey I like the dog on the front page too, but you're selling jewelry not pet products. If you're going to design something, get to the point, don't make me (the customer) look for your message. People get bored - fast! I bet half of you reading this article have stopped!

Just imagine yourself driving down a road, and a complex sign grabs your attention. You're spending a bit of time searching for the message. By the time you find the website or phone number, you were only able to get "www...?" or "555-5...?", by the way you just hit the car in front of you because you were too busy looking at that confusing design.

I just can't stress this enough to designers and non-designers as well. Please think like your target audience. We're all idiots. We probably don't understand what your trying to say anyway. Keep it simple. Keep it clean.

How do others feel about this? Do you think a designer should make things complicated or keep it simple? Are there times when one should complicate things and never make it "too simple"?

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