September 4th, 2007

On Increasingly Sophisticated Social Interfaces

In many circles you hear the call of software designers saying “Less is more”. In theory this is a good rallying call, getting designers to really think about each and every feature they add. But in practice it isn’t necessarily true that taking features out of a product, or not adding features to a product, makes it any better. Sometimes, more is more.

This is especially true in social interfaces that model complex social interactions. In some cases there is just no way around it: human relationships are complex and so whatever view we offer into them must have some complexity as well. That doesn’t mean they should be hard-to-use, it just means that they communicate sophisticated information.

Take the reviews on Amazon.com. For years Amazon’s interface showed the average review, so viewers could tell the general mood surrounding a book. If it was a 5 star or a 1 star book, then that would be instantly recognizable.

But over time it became clear that the rating system had a fault: if the average rating was somewhere in the middle, say 3.5 stars, it was unclear whether it was just a dull book that most people rated as mediocre or if it was a polarizing book that half the people rated 5 and half the people rated 1. A political book, for example, usually polarizes.

So the review interface could be made more sophisticated, showing more information about how the reviews for a particular book were distributed. Amazon came up with a nice interface for this:

I’ve talked to many folks who have made positive comments about this interface. They like seeing more information, and it doesn’t confuse them. Instead, they get a more accurate picture of the reviews than they had before, and that helps them make a more informed decision. More is more, in this case.

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Comments ( 15 Responses so far )

1. Jeff on September 4th, 2007 (Comment) #

Hear hear! Amazon has always been one of the most open minded sites and businesses on the web, throwing a ton of features against the wall and seeing what sticks.

2. Tim Case on September 4th, 2007 (Comment) #

I liked the example you showed with regards to showing how a certain instance of a complex interaction can be improved by a more sophisticated interface element, but I wouldn’t extend it as any comment on whether taking features out of, or adding more features into a product makes it better.

I think that’s a much broader question that can’t be discussed within the context of the amazon ratings example you showed. What I see that you are saying is that a complex problem may require a complex answer, and I don’t see that as being in disagreement with the less is more philosophy.

I think it’s still a big problem that too much noise is being added to products and I’ll use that amazon item page as example: tagging? forums? amapedia? askville?

In theory it’s a good rallying call to get designers to really think about each and every feature they add, and in practice it is too. It’s also possible that complex problems require complex answers there is no simple way out of such a situation, but that complex solution may still be less than other more complicated options. Sorry to be cranky about your post but I think it murks up the water on this point.

(oh and I love your blog and think it’s one of the best I read)

3. Joey Day on September 4th, 2007 (Comment) #

I do agree with you that more is more. I really enjoyed reading Bret Victor’s “Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface“, in which he shows examples of placing tick marks just underneath the stars. I think that’s a brilliant way to display the same data Amazon displays much more succinctly and compactly.

4. Evan Meagher on September 4th, 2007 (Comment) #

Good post. The design zeitgeist nowadays seems to be pushing minimalism, which I agree with, but it should always be taken with a grain of salt. There’s a fine line between dull and elegant, and designers must tread lightly.

5. bam on September 4th, 2007 (Comment) #

these days everybody is pushing towards the apple way of doing things (true minimalism) and while that is a good thing in some cases however it cannot be applied in others. instead of writing an essay here i’ll just finish with one quote and hopefully you’ll get it to heart

“less is more is only true when more is simply too much” Frank Lloyd Wright

6. Rahul on September 4th, 2007 (Comment) #

Good post. I find myself in the situation of having to defend Amazon’s many UI innovations frequently as I work at a software development company with mainly programmers whose reactions to Amazon usually have something to do with complaining about clutter and how it’s supposedly hard to navigate. Each and every time I have to go and reiterate that Amazon was an early mover with many of today’s web UI conventions and that “business” on a shopping site isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Posts like this are definitely bookmarkable for future reference of this kind.

7. sean on September 5th, 2007 (Comment) #

Classic example of polarized reviews:
this DVD review.

8. Gordon R. Vaughan on September 6th, 2007 (Comment) #

I love the way Amazon keeps making little tweaks to their site and systems. They’re more willing to try things and so they continually improve.

Also, I’ve noticed I’m gradually doing more social-network type stuff on Amazon. I’m not writing a blog there, but gradually starting to accumulate friends and leave comments and reviews, of course.

It seems unlikely, but I have wondered lately if maybe Amazon will end up being a significant social network beyond just reviews.

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9. FredTheSwiss on September 8th, 2007 (Comment) #

A complex solution will be difficult to be understood. (but closer to the reality)
A simple solution will be wrong (too abstract and skipping part of the problem).

As designers we need to balance that….

10. FredTheSwiss on September 8th, 2007 (Comment) #

“entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem”

Enjoy this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam_razor

Microsoft: What can we had on our new mouse?
Apple: What can we remove from our new mouse?

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11. betatrom on September 12th, 2007 (Comment) #

I found this great site with the top 100 eBooks all available as free mp3 download. Check it out.

http://www.BooksShouldBeFree.com

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