TRENDS IN MINAMALIST UI DESIGN

KANCHI KIRAN K
Dept of ISE
The Oxford College of Engineering
Bommanahlli
Abstract: This paper examines how minimalism principles can enhance human-computer interface design, focusing on
user-centered approaches, error management, and integrating help systems to align with user goals and tasks.
Index Terms - Minimalism, Human-Computer Interface, User-Centered Design, Error Management, Context-Sensitive
Help, Task-Oriented Design.

Minimalism in information design, specifically as applied to brief instructional material that encouraged them to act rather
user tutorials and manuals, was introduced in the early 1980s than read. They learned best when the tutorials emphasized the
through the work of Dr. John M. Carroll, then a cognitive psy- goals they really wanted to achieve, rather than tasks defined by
chologist at the IBM Watson Research Center. Since that time, the computer software and the interface.
theorists and practitioners have further elucidated the princi- In one case, for example, the researchers created a cue card
ples of minimalism and have attempted to apply it to a variety that explained to the secretaries how to “Type something”
of situations in which people attempt to learn how to use a rather than how to “Create a document.” “Creating a docu-
software application. Most recently, a new exposition of mini- ment” was the heading used on one of the on-screen menus
malist principles and practices was published by MIT Press. (before Windows) and in the actual DisplayWriter documenta-
This work, Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel, represents tion. They had discovered that the secretaries did not want to
the work of leading theorists and practitioners in the field. create documents and were unable to relate their goal, which
I have long been in the habit of describing the user inter- was to type something, to the name of the task in the interface.
face as an element of information design and thus amenable to This mismatch between goal and execution of the task was a
the basic design tenets underlying information design. And, I significant impediment to their learning.
have frequently characterized the user interface as an expression In the design of the SmallTalk tutorial, the researchers dis-
of minimalist design because the interface combines the tradi- covered that programmers were best able to learn the computer
tional design elements of text, graphics, and layout in a two- language when they were engaged in the actual tasks of writing
dimensional space, with the occasional addition of movement, and debugging code rather than reading about the concepts
in as compact a form as is practical. More recently, I have been underlying the language. Users who are encouraged to act,
intrigued by the possibility of applying minimalist principles to rather than read about acting, are more successful in their
interface design in a more systematic manner than has been learning. Users who are encouraged to perform tasks that are
heretofore discussed by its proponents. directly related to their goals in using the software are more
In this presentation, I will introduce the four basic princi- able to formulate realistic plans, the set of steps they envision
ples of minimalism, as well as some of the research done to sup- will take them through a series of actions to their goals.
port the principles, and explain how they might contribute to
our understanding of interface design. To the extent which MINIMALIST PRINcIpLES
time and space permit, I hope to present some examples of how In 1996, John Carroll and Hans van der Meij summarized the
a minimalist interface might be similar but also differ from principles of minimalist design of documentation and training
more traditional interfaces. in an article in Technical Communication, the journal of the
Society for Technical Communication. This article, reprinted
BAckGRoUND To THE MINIMALIST DEBATE in Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel, most clearly states
John Carroll's most developed presentation of the minimalist the four minimalist principles and how they are represented in
concept appeared in 1990 in The Nurnberg Funnel (MIT the design of documentation and training.
Press). In this work, he fully described what he and his team at The four basic principles of minimalism are
IBM had learned from observing people trying to learn to use S Principle 1: Choose an action-oriented approach
IBM's DisplayWriter word processor and how to learn the
computer language, SmallTalk. Learners of DisplayWriter and S Principle 2: Anchor the tool in the task domain
SmallTalk were most successful when they were provided with S Principle 3: Support error recognition and recovery
S Principle 4: Support reading to do, study, and locate
My purpose here is to examine to what extent these principles, interface, they frequently become increasingly confused, unable
used to define goals for the development of documentation and to differentiate among explorations that lead to their goals and
training, apply to the design of the human-computer interface. explorations that lead away from their goals. An interface that
guides exploration in productive ways leads the users by using
Principle 1: Choose an action-oriented approach
information on the screen that makes clear the direction to
The first principle of minimalism points to the basic concept
take.
that underlies interface design. An interactive interface implies
Finally, the first principle implies that we must, in creating
action; users are provided with opportunities for action. In a
successful designs, respect the integrity of the users' actions.
Windows environment, users select commands from a task bar,
When we present message boxes that are unrelated to the users'
make selections in dialog boxes, type information into data-
actions, we violate this aspect of the first principle. When we
entry fields, and so on. Interfaces ordinarily provide many
present error messages that fail to inform users how to correct
opportunities for action, even if that action is simply looking at
the problem, we also fail to respect what the users are attempt-
an on-screen report. The intent of basic interface design is to
ing to do. Tips that appear on the screen, unasked and
allow users to do something.
unwanted, distract the users from their tasks. Tips that attempt
However, there is more to the first principle than simply
to track user actions have the promise of maintaining the users'
action. An action-oriented approach implies that the user is
original intent, but, thus far, seem mostly clumsy and overbear-
able to accomplish something. Users are most satisfied, it
ing.
appears, when they have an immediate opportunity to act and
One of the researchers at Xerox PARC remarked to me a
when they believe that the actions they take will lead them
few years ago that they were having a difficult time making
toward their goals. Simply clicking on buttons or typing some-
sense of users' seemingly random keystrokes to approach a task.
thing into a field does not imply that the actions are anything
They could not anticipate the users' intent simply from moni-
more than random attempts to make progress. In many flawed
toring key strokes. The researcher suggested that a much more
interfaces, the actions that users take often have little purpose.
sophisticated approach to interpreting the users' logic was
They are simply attempts to see what, if anything, will result.
needed before such tracking might be successful.
We observe users trying to guess, unsuccessfully in many cases,
For an interface to comply with the first minimalist princi-
which actions will lead to the results they want. The interfaces
ple, to take an action-oriented approach, means the following:
provide them with little or no guidance about where to start.
I recently reviewed an interface design in which the users S make critical actions immediately apparent when the users
are presented with a blank screen and a task bar when they enter the interface, especially as users enter the interface
enter the program. Their first cognitive task is to examine the for the first time
task bar and attempt to guess what item they need to select to S provide opportunities for exploration through the inter-
accomplish something. Users are immediately confused, unable face, but guide those explorations using appropriate text
to take the immediate and purposeful actions that they want to and graphics so that the connection between actions and
take, because the interface fails to lead them in a clearly defined goals are easily apparent
direction. A more successful design, following minimalist prin-
ciples, would present an immediate opportunity for action in S respect the integrity of the users' actions by eliminating
the context of the users' goals. For example, if the users need to annoying and often gratuitous invasions in the middle of
select a patient in order to view that patient's record, the first tasks the user is attempting to pursue
action available immediately in the interface should be patient Principle 2: Anchor the tool in the task domain
selection. Providing an immediate opportunity to act means The second principle is most significant for the design of user-
making the desired activities immediately apparent and reduc- centered systems. Too often, interfaces reflect the underlying
ing the number of choices that the users must make before tak- database structure rather than the users' goals. To anchor the
ing action. tool in the task domain means to design the interface from the
In addition to an immediate opportunity to act, the first users' perspective rather than designing an interface that is
principle of minimalism also points to the need for users to functionally correct but disembodied. We have all seen inter-
explore as a way of learning. Most graphic user interfaces pro- faces that fail to resonate with the users' goals. These interfaces
vide more than enough opportunities for exploration, at least have functional names that make no sense to the users. They
in principle. The standard Windows approach is to make many require sequences of actions that are hidden from view, requir-
actions available through task bars, pull-down menus, and dia- ing the users to figure out which task structure will lead them
log boxes. Users can browse through the menus, select and to their goals.
review dialog boxes, and make different choices to see how For example, we recently reviewed a Web site designed by
those choices might affect what is happening on the screen. a major American university. We took the point of view of a
The problem with this approach is that the exploration is undi- user who wanted to find out if the university offered courses
rected. We have found that when users explore at random in an toward a degree in technical communication. We believed this

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goal to be typical of many individuals coming to the Web site might be more meaningful. Dialog boxes reduce text to field
from outside the university. Unfortunately, the Web site was labels and one-word descriptions of radio buttons or check
not designed from the users' perspective, but rather used the boxes, often making it difficult for the users to know what
organizational structure of the departments and schools in the actions to take.
university to organize the information. Unless the user already Given the space we have to work with and the legibility of
knew which school and department offered the courses she a graphic user interface, we appear to be constrained by unnec-
wanted to find, she could not get the information she needed. essary brevity, afraid to use words to help the users know what
In fact, she needed to know the solution to her problem in is going on. If we are to support the users' task performance, we
order to find the solution—a rather circular approach unlikely should consider adding meaningful language to the screen,
to produce success. using text in phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs. In the past
In order to anchor the tool in the task domain we must few years, interface designers have introduced the concept of
first be well-informed about the goals that the users want to the wizard or coach to assist users in performing certain tasks.
achieve. Do they want to use the task bar or send a fax to a col- Sometimes those tasks have been designed so that novice users
league? Do they want to complete the dialog box or find out are better supported, in effect supplying an alternative to the
how many days of vacation they have left? In many interfaces, more cryptic standard interface. In other cases, we have
the users' real goals are obscured, if they were ever understood designed wizards to become the primary interface for complex
in the first place. We need to use all of the user-centered design tasks that users have difficulty performing successfully with the
tools to ensure that we truly understand the world from the cryptic assistance given by the “ordinary” interface. Perfor-
users' perspective if we hope to build successful interfaces. mance support of these types has proven inordinately successful
The second principle of minimalism exhorts us to build in improving task performance and enabling users to learn how
on the users' prior skills, knowledge, and experience in the best to perform tasks and achieve their goals.
design of product. As a consequence, we must know the users' It is interesting to note that, in most instances, the perfor-
goals and relate them to tasks already known in the users' mance assistants (wizards and coaches) carry more text explana-
domain to achieve those goals. For example, the software pro- tions than do the “ordinary” interfaces. If we have learned that
gram Quicken uses a metaphorical construct on screen of a more text can result in better performance in the context of a
check register, similar in appearance to the check register pro- well-designed task environment, why not adopt such devices
vided by banks with packets of checks. By using this visual most of the time instead of making them special cases?
metaphor of the task, the designers are able to build upon the In general, on-screen text should provide users with clues
users' knowledge of performing the task with the physical arti- about the task structure in the software. Terminology used on
fact. The affordances of the artifact are transferred to the inter- the screen should reflect users' goals and lead them through the
face. The users are able to bring their prior experience of structure of the tasks. The text on screen, as well as the layout
recording checks and balancing their checkbooks to perform- of the information (reflecting reading order or other struc-
ing the tasks in the new environment. tures), should help users make the connection between what
Metaphoric constructs alone, however, are not sufficient to they want to do and how they accomplish the tasks within the
reinforce the users' prior skills, knowledge, and experience. In software application.
many more complex system designs, the overall relationship For an interface to comply with the second minimalist
among tasks must reflect the users' experience. For example, principle, to anchor the tool in the task domain, means the fol-
consider a system to support the task of call tracking, in which lowing:
the overall flow of information from the primary screen,
S ensure that the users' goals are well understood by the
through secondary screens, and into dialog boxes, is made to
interface designers so that the interface makes a clear con-
resemble the task sequence performed by the users in the phys-
nection between the users' goals and the tasks required to
ical environment. If we are able to take advantage of known
achieve the goals
sequences, we spare the users the need to unlearn their previous
behaviors and learn new ones. Their cognitive tasks are simpli- S build on the users' prior skills, knowledge, and experience
fied, the learning curve is reduced, and they are able to accom- by creating a metaphoric structure for the interface that
plish their goals. enables the users to connect known abilities to new
In building an interface that respects the second principle requirements for interaction
of minimalism, we must place information in the interface that S place information into the interface that supports task per-
supports task performance and enables the users to link the formance. Consider using more rather than less text in the
tasks to their goals. To do so often requires more than cryptic interface, along with layout, color, and white space to
terminology. For some reason, we appear to have chosen to pre- assist the users in learning how to perform the tasks within
serve the limited language present in the original teletype inter- the tool.
faces. Menu systems often consist of single words when phrases

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Principle 3: Support error recognition and recovery S assist users in preventing the error in the first place by
The third principle of minimalism emphasizes the users' need using error trapping techniques as thoroughly as possible
to detect the problems when they occur, diagnose what has S assist users in making the right decisions by providing
happened, and find effective ways to overcome those problems. default values and complete information about the choices
At the heart of this principle is the need to prevent mistakes available in the interface itself
before they occur. Often, preventing mistakes requires careful
use of default values for fields and choice buttons and error S create informative, helpful, and courteous error messages
trapping. For example, I was reviewing an interface that that enable users to detect, diagnose, and correct problems
required the users to type the hyphens in their U.S. Social as soon as they occur.
Security number (the standard format is xxx-xx-xxxx). If the Principle 4: Support reading to do, study, and locate
users failed to include the hyphen, a message appeared stating The fourth principle of minimalism, to support reading to do,
that the hyphens must be typed. In addition, all the numbers study, and locate, applies, primarily, to the help system and
the user had already typed were deleted from the field and documentation that you design to support the interface. We
replaced with a blank space. Such an approach is insulting to know that most of the time users' want to read to do (Redish
the users and reflects sloppy programming by the developer. 1988), seeking information that helps them complete the tasks
First, there is no need to require the hyphens at all. If they need in the software application and reach their goals. Help systems
to be added, they can be programmed to appear automatically and documentation that emphasize reading to do, providing
as the users type. Second, if a particular sequence of characters task-oriented instructional text, are most likely to assist users in
is required in a field for some reason, and the users make an navigating through the application interface.
obvious mistake, the cursor should be returned to the position Users who focus on reading to do profit from context-sen-
to correct the mistake following the appearance of the error sitive help and embedded help systems. Context-sensitive help
message. is designed to anticipate the information the users may need at
In many cases, as we have all seen, error messages are both a particular point in the interface. If the help designer guesses
insulting and belligerent toward users. The developers, in correctly, the help that appears at the users' initial request will
effect, accuse the users of being careless and stupid. The devel- solve the users' problem and halt the search for information. Of
opers, in many instances, have chosen to blame the users rather course, guessing what help is desired is a difficult process and
than do the additional programming to prevent the error in the often requires that help developers observe user problems dur-
first place. ing usability testing of the interface. In some cases, we have rec-
I am frequently annoyed when I enter a dialog box and ommended developing help text directly in response to
have to establish the keyboard focus by clicking the cursor in information queries during testing. The users ask for assistance;
the first field. Some additional programming is required to the help developer responds with the minimal information nec-
place the cursor in the first field, but someone considered that essary to move the users along; that text becomes the source of
additional programming a waste of time. A decision to waste the help system.
the time of hundreds, if not thousands of users, to save minutes Embedded help, a system more closely related to wizards
of programming time should not occur. and coaches, provides performance support in the context of
In areas where errors are likely to occur or when error cor- the application. Since the help is always present, the users do
rection proves difficult, we need to design in cautions and not have to locate the information they need to complete a
warnings to alert the users about the potential problems and task. The information is provided to them immediately in the
how to recover. If we provide error messages in such cases, the context of task performance. Development tools are now avail-
error messages must be carefully worded to assist the users in able to embed help within the application screens and to high-
detecting the error, diagnosing what happened, and taking cor- light the appropriate step in a process as the users proceed
rective action. Too often, error messages simply state the nature through the activity. (For more information, see the
of the error, often in rather cryptic language, rather than pro- HelpXtender from Wextech Software.)
viding assistance for correcting the error. Well-designed help systems and user guides should be as
One way to help users avoid errors is to provide many brief as possible to encourage the users to engage with the soft-
default values and explanations within the interface about what ware application and apply their previous knowledge and expe-
might be expected if new values are selected. Warning messages rience to the task. However, it is especially important that the
that point to the possibility of future problems are also useful text in the interface, the information on the screen, and the
additions, especially when they provide sufficient information information in the user guides be closely linked to the informa-
to allow the users to make choices about their course of action. tion in the instructional material. This approach to interface
For an interface to comply with the third minimalist prin- design recognizes that the help system and the user guides are
ciple, to support error recognition and recovery means the fol- integral parts of the interface and must be designed in associa-
lowing: tion with the interface design.
For an interface to comply with the fourth minimalist princi- Carroll, J. M., ed. 1998. Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Fun-
ple, to support reading to do, study, and locate, means the fol- nel. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
lowing:
Lewis, C. and D. A. Norman. 1986. “Designing for error.” In
S provide minimalist help and instructional text in user User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Com-
guides to support the users' task performance puter Interaction, ed. D. A. Norman and S. W. Draper, pp.
S develop context-sensitive and embedded help systems so 411–432. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
that the transition between actions in the interface and Redish, J. C. 1988. “Reading to learn to do.” Technical Writing
supporting information is as effortless for the users as pos- Teacher 15:223–233.
sible
S carefully integrate the development of all aspects of the
interface, including the development of help and addi-
tional instructional text so that all elements work together
to support the users.

SUMMARY
Minimalism provides us with insight into the design of user-
centered interfaces. It de-emphasizes the construction of pleas-
ing screen layouts, placing emphasis more properly on user
goal-oriented design. Minimalism suggests, in some ways, that
interfaces need to be designed to provide more information to
users than they do today. That information might come in the
form of metaphoric interface structures, assistance in moving
users from their goals through the specific tasks that support
the goals. It might come in the form of a richer textual content
in screen design and certainly with a focus on selecting the
right words and phrases to ensure that users make intelligent
choices.
Minimalism also points to the need for close integration
among the graphic interface, the help systems, and other forms
of instruction. Close integration has been proven successful in
the development of performance assistants such as wizards and
coaches, which provide more text and more task direction than
the typical menu-based design.
Finally, minimalism directs us to be aware of the real goals
of our users and to explicitly support the achievement of those
goals. Minimalism suggests that we anchor the tool in the task
domain, rather than in the database. Such a perspective means
that we must spend time understanding the users rather than
designing screens.

BIBLIoGRApHY
Carroll, J. M. 1990. The Nurnberg Funnel: Designing Minimal-
ist Instruction for Practical Computer Skill. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.