Ep 303| Simplicity is the actual Sophistication - Law of Pragnanz

No matter what simple design you make or complex design you make, people are not going to look at your website or a mobile app or any physical product what you're designing. Why? Because people always look for simplicity cognitively. People tend to make a meaning out of it when you create into shapes and groups and elements. Because our brain processes symmetrical and simple shapes more efficiently than the complex shapes. What is this about, Jagdish? You are telling about something very scientifically and all these things. This is exactly called law of pregnancy, guys. You need to understand people well. They are getting into the screens or websites and mobile app or products. If you're not providing a simple primitive shapes and explanation and interfaces, they get super confused, they return back to their cart, they don't purchase your product, they don't really come and take a call to action for your website. If you understand law of pregnancy and the simplicity, you're going to create a lot of engagement, guys. And using this law of pregnancy, you can reduce the user confusion up to 30 percentage. You can increase the task rate up to 25 percentage. And also you can reduce the prefrontal cortex confusion and make the cognitive load lesser for the user. Wanted to know how wanted to know how bigger companies are using this strategically like Apple and Nike have created lot more profits in the industry using the simple technique. In this podcast I'm going to give you with a lot of case studies and example and also mainly I'm going to make you do a live activity guys. Okay, so take a lot of notes. Let's jump inside the podcast. Welcome guys, welcome, welcome. Thank you for staying tuning here. Welcome to this podcast and we have reached close to 45 countries. Guys. I'm so happy for the support what you guys are making and every day we are going deep into each and every topic in design and this is going to be the ultimate law, guys. For the past 3, 4 podcast we've been listening to certain laws like let's say law of closure, law of practice, law of simplicity, continuity. But this is going to be the ultimate law, guys, which is called law of pragnance. Let me give you what are the example of it. Okay, so, so first of all you need to understand the law of pregnancy. Law of simplicity states people perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex visuals in the most, most simplest form. This is the simple example of it. Okay, so I'll repeat again. The law of simplicity states people perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex visuals only in the form of simplest form possible. Why? Because we can't take that much of load being A normal human being. This is very critical for a designer when you're designing some interfaces which needs to be very intuitive and user to have to make a very quick decision. This is damn, damn important. First of all, let me tell you, it is not only about simplification, it's also about reducing the cognitive load. And user try to make some connections. It makes them take a very faster decision. Ultimately this is the main importance. Guys, you need to get this fact. Okay, so what are the real world impact? See, when you are creating this much of simple products, people will be able to use it much faster. The adoption rate for using your products and the learning curve will become really, really faster. It impacts the user satisfaction by aligning the natural perception of the tendencies of the user. Guys, I already told you neurologically what happens inside. So this particular information, like let's say reducing the complexity decreases activity inside your prefrontal cortex, which reduces the cognitive load. That means user will try to understand and connect with the dots. Whatever you're trying to create through your user interface and user experience, what you're going to do and then what happens all automatically. Whatever your app intents, people will be able to do. Whatever your website intends or whatever your physical product intends, people will be able to take an action and deliver. Ultimately you become success. Ultimately your product becomes success. Only when you understand the simple factors. Because lot of people don't understand. They complex the screens, they keep on adding lot of buttons. User gets super confused. See, we are designing interfaces and experience and meaningful things for the people. Not only for the genius people who used to read a lot of information and all. No, you need to understand this very simple fact. This is used in branding, ui, ux, product design, physical product. This is most, most, most applied in the design industry, guys, more than anywhere. Okay? Because it was actually derived from gestalt psychology. Actually the word pregnancy means consciousness or simplicity in German. Okay. This actually suggests how user interprets the design in the most simplest form. Have you seen the Olympics Rogo guys, Olympics rings. Even though it's a little complex things to look, but people only perceive it like a circle five circle overlapping inside. That's it. Why? Because our brain is designed that way. You cannot really question that that is how we evolve. Because this principle actually is the most simple definition for all of the complex screens. Whatever has been built. If your portfolio looks very ugly shabby. If your design looks very ugly shabby, please go and understand whether have you applied the law of pregnancy or not. Because brain always simplifies the complexity information using the Past experiences, what happens? We've been trained like that. We've been trying to see simple elements. We've been trying to see only basic primitive circles, triangles, shapes and boxes. We are not very much inclined towards seeing the organic shapes. So this is a very natural tendency. Guys, you need to understand this very simple fact. Okay, Jagdish, now I have understood that how to recreate this for the people. I'll give you four important strategies, guys. Okay, now we are getting into the main aspect of this podcast. You can use something called grouping of elements. You can use something called minimalism. You can use something called contrast and hierarchy. You can use white space to achieve it. This is the four techniques I wanted to tell in this podcast, guys. Okay, okay, Jagdish, how I can use grouping of elements? First, let's talk about that. You can use alignment, guys. You can use left alignment, right alignment, central alignment. You can use law of proximity. You can use law of similarity. What happens when you use this alignment? It will guide the user perception. Ultimately, you need to make simplicity right, very simple. Second, you can use minimalism. See? Remove all of the unnecessary elements. If a simple video can communicate this message instead of text, use it. If a simple image can communicate this message instead of a video, use it. If a simple icon can communicate instead of that image, use that icon. If a simple line diagram can communicate this icon to it. If a simple one dot can communicate this line diagram, do it. If the dot is not even required, remove it. Many times it's all about removing the unnecessary element. This is called minimalism. The more minimal you go, people will be able to simply perceive it. See, guys, Leonardo da Vinci said simplicity is the actual sophistication. It is not complexity. You need to understand this. And Steve Jobs, Apple have really understood this. And they have started the lab 1989 for cognitive behavioral Lab where they have invented the user interface and they are the pioneers in the market. 80% of the mobile market's profit is only there with Apple. There are thousands of industries available, guys, in mobile manufacturing, but 80% of the profits is there only with one company, Apple. Why they have understood this simple city simplicity, guys. And that's why they made one button phone. And still they constantly innovate and they become the pioneers in the market. And people don't hesitate to pay even one and a half lakhs for a mobile phone. Look at this. I'm showing you a practical example. Okay? Third, contrast and hierarchy. Always apply visual hierarchy. See, people has to navigate, right? Try to create headings. Subheadings text so that people automatically intuitively know what is hierarchy. See. If you want to get a very detailed breakdown of this podcast, I would recommend you to go to my YouTube live and watch this because where I talk one hour about this on a shared screen. Show an example because you will be able to get a even more example of it. Okay, the link is given below in the description. You can go for it. Fourth, my favorite white space. Strategically use the empty spaces, guys. See, the more empty spaces you use, the minimal people will be able to see the picture what you put the minimal text, whatever you put, people will be able to focus on that. If you put too much of elements scattered here and there and there. What are you trying to say? There are three different type of users. I've talked about this three different type of users in my YouTube live. Guys. You can go and watch that. People will get super confused. There are fast moving users. There are only nitpicky users who wanted to get the meaning out of it. There are attention to details users where they will completely look at it from end to end. So you need to understand this very very carefully guys. Okay, so the moment when you get these four principles like let's say grouping of elements, minimalism, contrast and hierarchy white space, your design will automatically start making a lot more sense of it. Simple logos like Apple Nike are 50% more recognizable than the complex logo. Harvard Business Review has said that task completion have come up to 25 percentage. UX Collective has said that websites and simple design have 68% higher engagement rate compared to a cluttered interfaces. Nielsen Norman Group has said that you take any example guys. You can take physical products, you can take digital products, you can take Apple website, you can take Airbnb app, you can take Spotify music interfaces, you can take Dyson vacuum cleaner, iPhone physical layouts. Go and observe these case studies, whatever I told you, you can find lot of simplicity with this elements because they have really thought through how people can able to interact with this and how we can able to make it even more simpler so that it makes a lot of sense for the people because they know simplicity is the actual sophistication. When you take an example like let's say you can go to Google simple interface with minimal distraction. They will only focus on functionality. No fancy stuffs. Apple website, lot of white spaces. A very clean typography. Apple has invented a typography for themselves. It communicates what's the benefits features of the product. Airbnb simple layout, very, very complex booking system have come guys. But Airbnb has made this navigation so simple. Spotify anybody who wanted to listen music. They will love this app because of this grouping and playlist, whatever they have created. Simple interface of the Dyson hand icons, hand buttons. People can able to simply hold that product interface, use it. Have you seen Nike? A simple swash design conveys emotion and energy. FedEx, we've been talking about it a lot. A simple arrow communicates how they are able to create a moving forward meaning for their brand logo. Okay. Apple minimalistic logo symbolizes innovation and quality. Instagram simplified gradient icon conveys creativity and approachability. Because Instagram is all about posting your creative stuff. LinkedIn homepage. A clean sections divided into white space ensures professional clarity. Dropbox, Duolingo, Google Maps, Subway apps, Amazon's buy button, BMW dashboard, Coca Cola packaging, Starbucks app. You can just go and read everything guys, this will all make a lot of sense for you. Okay, so what are the practical way and techniques for applying it? See guys, first of all you need to conduct some research before you identify any kind of unnecessary elements to be removed. Okay? Don't do it prematurely. Create a visual IRR by using colors, sizes, positioning, alignment and all. Try to iterate and test it with a lot of users, refine it over the time and then use many tools like let's say Canva, Figma, Sketch, Miro, Adobe xd, whatever tool you want to create these interfaces. Then automatically what happens, you will be able to get a lot more benefit. Okay, so this is a practical way to do it, guys. And I would also recommend you to take one action. So why don't you now take one screenshot from the website or a mobile app. Listen to me very carefully guys. If you're doing this action only you will be able to apply this law and make a mistake out of it. Or else you won't be able to make a meaning out of it. Guys. Okay, so you take a very cluttered user interface, whatever you feel like. Very ugly, super confusing, okay? And then you try to make it simple using this law of pregnancy. People tend to see simplicity, right? People tend to see sophisticated. People tend to only see simplistic elements. So you try to create a very simple clutter free ui, a clutter free website and send me the screenshot of before and after to me. Guys, there is an email available in the description. You can see connecteddesignforchange.com people who are sending a screenshot of this. They're going to get ultimate ChatGPT prompts for getting you how we can able to Create a simplified element, how you can create your logo design, how you can research yourself, how you can get a feedback and presentation. I'm going to give you a set of prompts for this, guys. Using this you will be able to create a very simple user interface. But this is only for the people who are taking action and sending out the email. Okay, thank you so much guys for this. I hope you would have understood this law. I hope you will take action for this design and you will send me the email because you can claim this free gift sometimes. For the selected winners, we are going to give even a one to one special call so that you can get lot more clarity in your career. And people have taken one or two one to one calls with us. They have skyrocketed their career into 2x3x faster guys. Okay, so listening to this podcast is fine, but taking action is the most important thing. Okay, we are coming to the end of this podcast guys. Thank you so much. If you wanted to attend my upcoming webinar, you can also go and click the register link below. We are having a special webinar in the November 24th which is on the 10 o'. Clock. You can attend that webinar. You can also climb one of our free gifts which we have given. You can find that in our description, guys. Okay, thank you so much guys. Give me a best star rating if this podcast adds a great value and spread this word to your friends. We'll see you in another episode. Bye bye.