Focus
There is a trend starting to happen on the web that I like a lot. This trend is about design focusing on doing one thing great. I know it seems silly to call this a trend when the idea has been around ever since design became a concept, but look at the blogs around you. More and more are starting to put an emphasis on the content and nothing else.
Look at the products that we are using everyday. Instead of trying to become the tool for everybody, they are becoming the tool for a specific type of person. That person just also happens to belong to the majority.
When Apple introduced the iPhone they had no intention of allowing apps on it. Ironically, now the iPhone is great because of its apps. Its sole focus is the ability to have any type of information you want in your pocket because of these apps. It is a portable app machine first and a phone second.
How many apps do you use on your phone that are only good at one thing, but being good at that one thing makes them great?
To check the weather on my phone I use Shine. From their website:
Dewpoint. Visibility. Wind direction. Advanced Doppler radar. Who cares?
Exactly. There are definitely people in the world that do care about that stuff, but only focusing on the essentials makes Shine a great weather app for me.
Every iPod before the iPod touch had a clear focus on allowing you to play music. The most popular bicycles in major cities are the ones that only have one gear. In ‘N Out burger is wildly popular because it has a focus on hamburgers and nothing else.
The best designs always have a singular focus. The prettiest designs might have multiple things you can focus on, but that doesn’t make them the best designs.
We live in a time where there is so much happening around us that when we are able to use anything that has a singular focus it makes it easy. When we don’t have to make a decision on how we are supposed to use a design it makes it easy. You can’t beat focus. More features don’t beat focus. More doesn’t beat less unless the less is crap.
Google. Apple. ESPN. MTV. Southwest Airlines.
These are companies that do a lot of things now, but their origins started from a clear focus. Their core products only had one element to focus on and that made their designs the best.
If a singular focus is a key to a successful design then why aren’t there more of them out there? Why can’t I come up with more examples to make this point valid? I can’t because there seems to be a human trait where we like to add more. We see a design that works flawlessly and begin to imagine what more we can add. The fact that we can do intrigues us and it is almost impossible to just let something be.
“No” is the most powerful word in design and yet it is the word we hear least often. Steve Jobs was great at saying no. “No” allows us to maintain the focus of a design. “No” means nothing else will distract us or the people that are using our design. “No” means that someone else will do what your design does, but add a lot more to it and you have to accept that. It also means they won’t be able to do what your core focus is as good as you do it and they will never understand why.
Each page on a website has one focus. At least that is how it should work. The focus of this collection page is the individual item. It gets all the attention. It becomes the focus. I can’t tell you how hard it is not to add likes, comments, and other pieces of metadata to that page. I don’t think those will make it better for the majority of people. They might make it better for a few, but I design for the majority so until I feel they will want those things, it will remain the way it is.