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The power of simplicity in UI design

Dan Emery

Dan began as a Front End Developer specialising in WordPress. Working in Manchester he then expanded into Angular and Vue development where he worked on major projects like the Royal Ascot site. As a contractor he gained experience in the medical, financial, and educational sectors. Now, with over 10 years of experience, he works at Studio Republic, focusing on core framework development and processes.

Dan Emery, Full Stack Developer

Introduction

User-centred design is more important than ever. Highly advanced technologies require a thorough level of organisation to maintain a framework that works for all users and sustains engagement. This is what makes user interface design – or UI design – an intrinsic part of the design process for any digital product such as a website or application.

When a user interface is overly complex, it can be overwhelming and limit its effectiveness and efficiency. However, integrating a system with simplicity at its core is central to improving its overall performance, which in turn, boosts engagement and user satisfaction.

In this blog, we’ll look at how we can keep UI design simple, smart and effective so it meets user needs and helps your organisation achieve its goals.

Image for Photograph of a laptop showing a donation form

Clarity in design

Minimalist design is proven to streamline information processing and decision-making for users. At Studio Republic, we prioritise this principle in every site we build so we can ensure the user experience remains intuitive by avoiding information overload.

But, what does this look like in design? Accordion dropdowns are a great example of how large volumes of content on a single page can be condensed and simplified. This allows users to access only the information they choose to engage with, while the rest stays hidden. This also applies to filtering content through search and filter features. By implementing this type of feature, users can find what they need quickly and easily, reducing cognitive load while improving focus on key areas.

Visual elements can also improve the flow of information, making it far more captivating and engaging for the user. Including curated imagery can help break up continuous text, presenting information in more digestible sections. This can help the user better understand complex content and help your organisation better communicate key messages.

Image for A person viewing the McPin Foundation charity website using a mobile phone.

Consistency in code

Just as we prioritise simplicity in the design of our components, the same approach applies to our codebase. In development, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the technical jargon that fills our code. But, by maintaining consistency in our codebase, we develop habits around familiar coding patterns, which means we don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel.

This consistency leads to cleaner, more efficient code, which not only benefits the developer but also enhances the user experience. A streamlined codebase improves site performance, and better performance is more likely to sustain user engagement.

Image for A laptop screen displaying a developer writing clean maintainable code

Intuitive backend for admins

Another key element to consider in UI design is creating backend systems that are user-friendly and carefully designed with the end-user in mind. We find that clients often require a system that gets straight to the point, allowing them to build their site efficiently without unnecessary steps. A system that is overly intricate or complex may lead to poor website management, ultimately impacting the final product.

When developing our CMS systems at Studio Republic, we aim to identify common patterns in naming conventions and layout structures. This fosters a sense of familiarity for clients, allowing them to recognise the purpose of each component with ease. On a more granular level, field groups and input types should always maintain consistent appearances, in line with their intended function.

While layout and structure provide some direction, they can only go so far. Descriptive information and placeholders are also essential in helping clients understand the purpose of each CMS component.

For clients who are unfamiliar with the system, it’s crucial to explain how it works through simple yet informative markers, wherever appropriate. These typically appear as information displayed directly below the input, giving the client a clear understanding of the field’s intended role. Integrating features with these considerations in mind reduces the learning curve for non-technical users and ensures a straightforward content management experience.

Image for A screen showing a content management system UI.

Restrictions to preserve design integrity

Although streamlined UI components provide a more convenient website layout, they are only effective when content is displayed appropriately and visually appealing website layout, their effectiveness relies on how the content is managed and displayed. This responsibility often falls on the content provider, who must ensure the information fits within the design’s intended structure. However, without clear guidelines, unrestricted web content—such as excessive text, oversized images, or inconsistent formatting—can disrupt the design and create a cluttered, less user-friendly experience.

This responsibility usually lies in the hands of the content provider; but unrestricted web content can become problematic if certain guidelines haven’t preemptively been set. This is why a system must be designed with limitations to preserve the intended design.

To address this, it’s important to build systems with predefined limitations, such as character limits for text, fixed image dimensions, or guidelines for formatting. For example, consider a website’s featured banner, which typically displays a small amount of text alongside a featured image. To maintain the integrity of the design, the text must be restricted to a specific character limit. This restricts the use of excessive content that might overwhelm this introductory feature and keeps the image as the focal point without distorting its quality.

Image for A comparison of two homepage banners showing how content restrictions preserve the design layout.

Images can be a critical element of a website’s effectiveness, but they must be integrated carefully to avoid issues.

Content Management Systems work most effectively when measures are in place to limit the use of excessively large image sizes. As one of the heaviest elements loaded onto a user’s device, images significantly affect performance, and high performance is a crucial factor in sustaining user engagement.

The challenge lies in balancing quality and performance, a decision best left to the developer! Implementing restrictive cropping zones simplify the user’s interaction with visual elements by ensuring that an image’s focal point remains intact for aesthetic balance. This is particularly important because images come in various shapes and sizes, and if an image doesn’t align with the component’s canvas, the end result may be confusing and overwhelming.

In addition, overusing components can undermine simplicity, particularly with repeatable elements. Placing restrictions on such elements—for instance, limiting the number of items that can be displayed inside a repeatable list—helps prevent components from being overused and appearing monotonous.

Image for Two portrait photos of two young women cropped into a landscape and square ratio

Restrictions come in various forms, and they don’t always align with CMS features. On the front end, mobile users can easily feel overwhelmed by the amount of information displayed in a single component.

To address this, mobile users should typically be shown a reduced amount of content, given the limited space of the viewport. Icons are an excellent alternative for conveying information that may not fit on screen at once. When this isn’t feasible, it may be necessary to offer users a simpler mobile description, which can be made available as a variation within the CMS.

The same applies to images, which may sometimes shift to portrait orientation on mobile. Providing mobile-specific versions of images allows the client to offer alternative options when their original images don’t display well on smaller screens.

Next, one of the main causes of design overflow on mobile devices is the navigation. It’s quite common these days to see mobile menus implemented as dropdowns. But, menus that extend to three levels or more can still feel overwhelming, even with this design concept. An effective solution we’ve used at Studio Republic is a slide-out menu, which displays child navigation links in a new view, complete with a clearly visible back button.

This approach prevents an overload of links on the screen at once, and for a key feature like navigation, it’s essential in ensuring the user doesn’t become disoriented early on in their site journey.

Streamlined process for developers

Not only do clients benefit from using an intuitive backend system, but developers will also find it easier to identify consistent patterns in structure. CMS platforms like WordPress offer developers numerous valuable features, preventing them from having to rebuild everything from scratch.

For example, WordPress offers templating, enabling developers to apply the same field groups across multiple templates, rather than recreating them each time.

A simplistic UI approach is beneficial not only for the client when building the application, but also for the developer when assisting with CMS updates and addressing bugs. Integrating a system this way contributes to a simpler, more cohesive technical process. At Studio Republic, these are key principles we follow when developing the structure of our clients’ sites.

Image for Wordpress homepage on a laptop screen

How simplicity enhances accessibility

Programmatically, integrating accessibility becomes much easier when consistent rules of simplicity are applied throughout the codebase.

Proper accessibility implementation allows assistive technologies to navigate a website without being hindered by unnecessary or redundant code. From a front-end perspective, such technologies can interpret the website’s structure more effectively for visually impaired users, resulting in a smoother, more enjoyable experience and enabling more inclusive engagement with a broader audience.

A website that adheres to minimalist principles—using an appropriate combination of imagery, layout, and content—offers significant benefits. Visual aids and well-structured layouts can capture users’ attention, encouraging them to maintain their engagement.

Image for Person using an accessibility braille terminal

Conclusion: the outcome of embracing simplicity

Prioritising simplicity in UI design is a key driver for increasing traffic and sustaining user engagement for longer on digital platforms. A website can tell a story through both the content and carefully curated visuals, creating a positive and memorable experience fo the user. Smart UI design also supports a smoother website management process for people maintaining the back-end, helping to sustain long-term success.

The more creative a site’s structure, the better it serves the audience it aims to engage with too. Clear and intuitive navigation enhances the exploratory experience of a site. The easier content is to find, the easier it will be for users to complete well-defined calls to action and support meaningful engagement. The consistency of a simple design also provides a sense of familiarity, fostering a more memorable experience, encouraging users to return to the site time and time again.

Above all, a simple and professional design nurtures trust and credibility. At Studio Republic, we consider this one of the most fundamental aspects of website design and development, and it’s a core principle we keep in mind throughout every stage of our production process.

Ready to simplify your digital design? Get in touch today.

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