45A/52: Simplicity Is a Tactic, Not a Goal

A simple thing is not inherently valuable. Simplicity is valuable if it aligns with your goals.

The pilot of a plane dies suddenly. A passenger attempts to land the aircraft with the help of a trained flight instructor. Do the instructor’s commands sound simple? Yes. But they are more than simple. The commands—devoid of jargon, acronyms, and standard ATC protocol—help the non-pilot land the plane safely.

Isn’t this common sense? I’m not so sure. 

If you’ve usability-tested content, you’ve learned this firsthand. Some content tests amazingly internally. The team loves it, but the content falls completely flat when tested with external users. Or the content lands for users who need the tl;dr and a spark of inspiration and falls flat for people wanting more precision and a clear next step.

The same holds for internal communications. Sometimes the “job” of the message is to tell a memorable story that everyone in the company can remember (even if the details are rough around the edges). But when that goal isn’t clear, it can confuse the passionate problem solvers at your company. 

“Was that intentionally vague? Or is that what they really think?”

“Are they just figuring I’ll fill in the blanks myself?”

“Am I the actual audience here?”

The confusion is warranted. It turns out that “simple” can be a proxy for:
 
-Accessible
-Memorable
-Easy-to-parse
-Beginner-level
-Quick to scan
-Not cognitively taxing
-Stark
-Powerful
-Clear
-…and more

Dictionary definitions are all over the place:

-the state or quality of being plain or not fancy or complicated
-the quality or condition of being easy to understand or do
-the quality or condition of being plain or natural
-freedom from pretense or guile, humble and unpretentious
-directness of expression
-not divided or branched

That’s a huge range! “Keep the slide simple” could mean “something a five-year-old could understand” all the way to “ultimate, timeless clarity.” 

Put simply, simplicity Is a tactic, not the goal.

It can be a very effective tactic, no doubt. And striving for simplicity—while often a complex creative process, a topic for another post—can be a noble undertaking.

But it is still a tactic.

So start with the goal.