Today, I quickly wanted to point out the importance of finding simplicity in your communications.
Don’t be afraid to use less. It is in fact more.
Here’s a real world example to demonstrate
We used to take the gals to dance class every Saturday. While I was making a tuition payment, the front desk lady let us know that there was no class the following Saturday. Good thing she told us. We had know idea. And it would have been no fun to find out after an hour plus subway ride to the city.
She told us, “It’s in the newsletter. But no one ever reads it.” Ya, about that. You see I do read it. I can’t help myself. I do this for a living.
But, um, it’s not exactly easy to find any information
The first reason is that it’s a PDF attached to an email. So instead of just opening the email. I have to open and then download a PDF for no apparent reason. Then the PDF itself is trying really hard to get my attention. It uses upwards of 10 different colors. (Do you know the most important color rule?)
There are over 10 topics on the first page. And it’s 8-pages long!
I’m actually starting to hyperventilate a bit
My brain gets crazy trying to figure out what I should read. I actually had to sit there for a good chunk of time to pull out the info I needed about the girls’ upcoming recital. Hmm, still wondering why no one reads the newsletter?
After further conversation with front desk lady, we found out that the designer was trying to overcompensate because people don’t read it. But by adding more and more, everything ends up competing with itself. This just makes matters worse.
How do you fix it?
You do the exact opposite. Don’t add more, take things away. There’s no need for the PDF. That’s one step too many. Just put the info in an email. And resist the urge to get all fancy there too. Simple works.
Cut down on the topics too. Stick to one thought per email. But sometimes you have multiple things to cover so try sticking to three topics at the max.
In this case:
- No class on dates…
- Recital Info
- How to buy tickets
Then spell out each topic for me. My brain can handle that. Especially when I’m sick (I had a cold at the time.) And the girls are yelling, “Look at me, look at me!”
So remember less is more
Don’t try to overcompensate. All that other stuff just gets in the way. And people shut down rather quickly. Keep it simple. Then you’ll have a better chance of everyone dancing to your tune.
Action step:
Grab a communications piece. Strip it of everything except the essential information your reader needs right now. In fact, let’s make that a rule. =)
Do you find simplicity works better for you?
This is brilliant, Dave. I’m a huge advocate of simplicity in design.
I see this with business signs, too. If I’m driving and see a sign with lots of copy, my brain will skip right over it.
If I see a sign that says, “COFFEE,” I’ll either be pulling in or filing it away for later.
Hey David,
Thanks for stopping by.
Some of those business signs are wacky, not in a good way. Like they got a deal on the number of words they use. 😉
My wife runs the theater club at the community college out here. And she frequently uses flyers to advertise upcoming events around the campus. It’s a good lesson in simplicity.
She started with a bunch of headlines on a single flyer and lots of other info. I knew that would just get lost hanging on the walls. So we made some adjustments like using only one headline per flyer so we could make it BIGGER.
Then we only put the info the person needed at that moment. Nothing fancy or unnecessary elements. Just text.
She couldn’t believe how many people showed up. And that people were reading back the headline they read from memory to make sure they were in the right place.
Simplicity works!
Love your designs by the way. Lots of fun. Hope we’ll see you around more.