Design should prioritize functionality over pure creativity. This isn't just an opinion—it’s backed by psychology (how humans think and interact), development principles (years of design thinking and iteration), and hard data (proven patterns that work). If that’s not convincing enough, here are a few insights from some of the brightest minds in the field.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” -Steve Jobs
“Usable designs are not necessarily enjoyable to use.” -Donald A. Norman
Design need not be innovative to be good.
Good design isn’t about being flashy or groundbreaking—it’s about being usable. Think about the last time you struggled with a needlessly complicated door handle or a confusing app interface. Design that prioritizes innovation over functionality often creates frustration rather than delight. While creativity has its place, a truly great design is one that users don’t have to think about. When it comes to UI, simplicity and clarity win over complexity. In this article, we’ll explore why good design doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to work.
Why design is more about strategy.
Design in earlier years of the computer age was not the focus of development but in the modern age, a bad design can cost a company it’s customers and substantial financial losses. Poor design can cost a company its customers and lead to significant financial losses.
Recognizing this, modern businesses have made design an integral part of the software development lifecycle to ensure high-quality products. The process begins with UX designers and product managers conducting in-depth user research, creating user stories, and building models to understand customer needs. Throughout development, UX and engineering teams collaborate in sprints, refining the product through iterative prototyping.
A critical aspect of this process is designing within the user’s existing ecosystem. For instance, when introducing a dropdown menu, an iOS designer would opt for a scroller, while an Android designer would use a spinner. This decision isn’t arbitrary—it’s rooted in user familiarity. Android users accustomed to spinners may find a scroller unintuitive, disrupting their experience. By aligning design choices with platform conventions, designers create seamless, user-friendly experiences that feel natural to their audience. Balancing innovation with usability ensures that designs are not just visually appealing but also intuitive and functional.
Learning from examples.
When designing applications, there are some standard rules that shouldn’t be tampered with, in order to build flexibility into the design of the website. There are three components that need to be kept in mind when designing
● Color,
● Spacing and
● Typography.
Let’s discuss how being “innovative” may ruin the usability of the product.
Burlington Website
https://www.burlington.com/?gclsrc=aw.ds&
"Where can i buy coats?" - Keerthana Ravikumar
What’s right?
Overall, most color rules are followed by the website. The site follows the color scheme of the brand, the background is clear hence all the text is legible. The contrast between card backgrounds, and the text in it also works well, so overall the site is easy on the eyes at first glance.
Figure 3. Color rules in burlington’s website
What’s wrong?
- disclaimer: all of these are personal opinions, and observations made as a design aspirant. On a deeper dive we find out how frustrating the site really is. When visiting a website of a clothing store, as a user, we expected to be able to buy clothes online (which isn’t the case). The pop open menus don’t close on clicking the area outside the pop up. The whole site gives the appeal of an E-commerce site, but is essentially just a catalog of their products. In terms of typography and space:
Typography:
1. The sign up form is not readable. The font is too small.
2. Text that is not a link is underlined.
3. There are too many words below the images, to explain common procedures. The content seems unnecessary.
Space:
1. The website is center aligned and valuable space is wasted on either side. There is more passive spacing than needed.
2. The red tags of prices can be mistaken for buttons.
Other than these design rule flaws most elements in the website don’t function what they look like. The UI looks good, but the functionality and experience it creates for the user is just frustrating. The goal of the interaction is not achieved. Personally, the only reason we would revisit this site would be to write a case study on how bad it is.
Nura Website
"Wow that was simple!"
The eye wanders around all elements on the page, you can find whatever u want very intuitively. There are no moving images that cause discomfort to the eye. It is actually an E-commerce site. There are no false bottoms, in fact the bottom of the home page makes it clear that you can scroll further. The layout of how the content is arranged is also mindful of what catches the eye around the Von Restorff effect.
Figure 5. Nura’s good simple design
As aspiring designers and developers, we have learned to look at all the sites through a detective lens. These real life applications have strengthened our claim that a simple design but functional design is way more valuable than one that just looks pretty.