At a time when digital products are racing to add more features, buttons, and screens, the simplicity of design is increasingly being overlooked. Platforms that were once intuitive and focused now feel cluttered, noisy, and harder to use—not because they lack capability, but because they lack restraint. In the pursuit of competing with every alternative on the market, many products sacrifice clarity for complexity, forgetting that the best user experiences often come from doing less, not more.
This article explores why simplicity of design isn’t about stripping functionality away, but about creating interfaces that respect users’ time, attention, and habits—and why fewer interactions often lead to better products.
When Features Become Friction
Have you noticed how crowded Instagram has become? Buttons scattered across every screen, new features layered on top of old ones, and an interface that feels increasingly noisy. In many ways, Instagram appears to have buckled under the pressure of competing platforms, introducing Reels to rival TikTok, captions on Stories, and even an arguably unnecessary map feature.
But in doing so, it seems to have drifted away from the simple idea that made it so compelling in the first place: sharing a single photo. That original clarity and focus is what many of us fell in love with, and it’s hard not to wonder where it went.
Less Really Is More
Apple is often cited as a gold standard for minimalist, user-centred design, and for good reason. Despite major annual operating system updates, Apple consistently introduces new features without overwhelming users or disrupting established behaviours.
Take the redesign of Control Centre as an example. While the interface evolved significantly, its core accessibility remained unchanged. Tools stayed in familiar positions, allowing users to benefit from new capabilities without relearning how to perform everyday actions. Innovation, in this case, didn’t come at the cost of usability.
Instagram once embodied a similar philosophy. In its early days, the platform was refreshingly simple: five primary screens, feed, search, upload, likes, and profile. That clarity made it instantly understandable and accessible to users of all ages, across the world.
Today, Instagram still dominates, but at a cost. As features have been added to keep pace with competitors, the interface has grown more complex. More buttons, more screens, more noise. Do we really need captions on Stories? Do we even need Stories when posts already exist? At what point does feature growth begin to undermine the experience?
Reducing User Interactions
For me, one of the most important principles of minimalist design is reducing unnecessary user interactions. Every extra click adds friction.
Consider a simple example: a map feature that allows users to switch between standard, satellite, and terrain views. The optimal approach is to place this control directly on the map itself, clearly visible and immediately accessible.
With this approach, the user performs just two interactions:
- Click the Map Overlay button
- Select the desired map type
Now compare that to burying the same option in a settings menu:
- Click Settings
- Select Map
- Select Map Type
- Choose the desired option
- Navigate back to the map
Five interactions instead of two.
From a development perspective, the second option may be quicker and cheaper to implement. But from a user’s perspective, it costs time, effort, and attention. Reducing those small points of friction makes a product easier to use, faster to navigate, and ultimately more enjoyable.
And those qualities: ease, clarity, and efficiency, are what drive long-term user satisfaction and retention.