Focus on the User and All Else Will Follow

October 13th, 2009 by Chris Rodriguez | Share +

Courtesy of Google

Such is the mantra of the Google design team and, thus, it’s a good mantra to follow. I’ve always been impressed with Google’s steadfastness to simplicity. The world’s most popular search engine doesn’t need a glamorous, superfluous interface. Instead, it only needs to perform a search.

I believe without any reservation that focusing on the user will allow everything else to fall into place. By focusing on the user’s needs, goals and experience, you can easily find your way through planning, design and implementation. Too many designers place too much importance on how something looks rather than how something works.

The great American architect of the late 19th century Louis Sullivan once said that “form follows function”. New technologies and services are created out of need and out of necessity, no matter how small that need might be. This mindset came at a time when technology, taste and the economy converged, making it necessary to drop the styles of the past and regardless of how established they might’ve been. Shaking off the old gives way to more freedom and a clean slate to work with.

But, as everybody knows, nobody shakes off established styles better than Google. With their minimalist approach to design, they allow their team to focus on creating easy-to-use tools that benefit the user. How? Simply by making their lives easier and more productive. The user experience is all about the user and that’s exactly what Google’s focus is all about.