Cut to the Quick
I’m just about finished with Merlin Mann & Dan Benjamin’s inaugural podcast, Back to Work, which is too long.
They get in a bit at the end about interface clutter in Photoshop and in UNIX manuals, which is a bit ironic as it’s really a question of editing: focusing attention to the most important commands in the interface (or the most interesting parts of the podcast).
There are lots of ways to accomplish this with design, but it’s one of the best places to approach a design problem.
What are the most important pieces of content? What will the user spend most of her time trying to do? Find that, and cut out or bury as much of the rest as possible. People who need more will find it. Most people just want the basics, quickly.
