Navigating the UX Efficient Frontier: Balancing Complexity in Design
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Designers:
We are not our users.
We are even less like our expert users.
This crucial detail often slips the minds of many candidates during design interviews. Typically, we present them with a complicated screen from our B2B financial offerings, utilized by financial advisers and investment professionals, and ask them to suggest improvements. Some respond with, “Wow, there’s too much information; I’d advocate for a complete redesign — I could never use this.”
But what about comprehending the users' context? I don’t expect them to ever use such a product unless they plan to become financial experts at some point.
It turns out we all have a tendency to believe that all products are designed for us. Our team has made this mistake as well, leading me to ponder why this bias seems more common among designers than developers or project managers.
Is it due to the fact that most UX courses today lack the time to delve into complex domains like healthcare, education, and finance?
Is it that people prefer to showcase flashy redesigns of apps like Spotify or Deliveroo in their portfolios?
Or is it simply more challenging to define what constitutes good design for expert users? What even are expert interfaces?
Into the World of Expert Interfaces
Behind every mainstream application lies an advanced version tailored for its expert users — the “power users” or internal staff. You seldom get to see this advanced iteration unless you belong to that exclusive group.
Consider booking systems: every effective booking platform today provides a straightforward, step-by-step booking process. But what about the travel agents who spend their days reserving tickets?
Business professionals and employees don’t require hand-holding. Their role is to understand how their work operates.
Notice the stark contrast between the two screens from Eurostar, the train service connecting London and Paris. On the left, the customer interface is intentionally simplified, while on the right, the “behind-the-scenes” interface for Eurostar staff is far more condensed:
Eurostar staff interact with this interface daily, needing to view detailed seat availability, date combinations for inbound and outbound journeys, currency options, and more — all on a single screen to assist customers efficiently.
Another example comes from my workplace, Societe Generale CIB. We provide clients with two distinct interfaces for their foreign exchange (FX) requirements: one for novices and another for FX specialists. Both utilize the same backend systems but are designed quite differently.
Why? Because the user contexts are vastly different.
Product 1: SG Markets MyFX
This product is tailored for treasurers of small to medium enterprises in France. The design is straightforward, guiding users step by step through the process. The experience resembles what one would expect from a neo-bank for personal banking.
But what about treasurers from larger multinational corporations, FX specialists, and our internal team members? They would find such a simplified interface limiting, as they need to monitor multiple currencies simultaneously and engage with financial instruments. Therefore, they utilize…
Product 2: SG Markets Foreign Exchange
This interface caters to FX professionals and internal employees, aiming to help them work effectively and maintain their workflow.
In contrast to products aimed at a large consumer base — which prioritize simplicity for the widest audience — products designed for experts or employees must be customized to their unique professional needs.
Designers must navigate the challenge of finding the sweet spot between “not too simple” and “not too complicated.”
So, how do we find that sweet spot?
Introducing the UX Efficient Frontier
The term “Efficient Frontier” originates from financial theories regarding the management of efficient investments while balancing risks and returns.
After years in B2B design, I recognized that this concept could be adapted for UX to aid in designing relevant products — while considering both business and interface expertise.
First, let’s delineate the distinctions.
Business Expertise
Business expertise reflects an individual’s knowledge in a specific area, derived from education, business training, or work experience. It encompasses the mental models guiding their approach to tasks and processes.
For instance, individuals in finance are typically proficient in Excel and often anticipate being able to manipulate data with similar efficiency — a prospect that can be daunting for designers!
Interface Expertise
Interface expertise pertains to a person’s understanding of how an interface functions, derived from training, usage habits, or experience with similar interfaces. As this expertise increases, so does the ability to recognize familiar interaction patterns, minimizing the need for analytical recall.
Now, if we plot the two together…
- Any design above the curve is over-complicated: it makes it more challenging for users to utilize your service.
- Any design below the curve is oversimplified: it diminishes user value and risks their ability to perform their tasks.
- The curve represents the “UX Efficient Frontier,” the ideal balance between users' business and interface expertise.
Let’s dive deeper into understanding and leveraging the Frontier.
Understanding and Using the Frontier
Here are some examples to clarify the curve and its shape:
Example 1: LOW Interface Expertise for LOW Business Expertise
This is where many products aimed at a broad consumer base strive to exist. Consider consumer needs in getting food delivered, streaming music, or booking train tickets, without being a food-chain management expert, music publisher, or travel agent.
Example 2: HIGH Interface Expertise for MEDIUM Business Expertise
This category often includes legacy tools. They have been designed with the system in mind rather than the users. Projects frequently assumed that business expertise equated to interface expertise, resulting in users feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of the interfaces.
This is our forte as a B2B design team. We consistently evaluate how to create the best experience for professional users while accommodating their business intricacies.
Example 3: LOW Interface Expertise for HIGH Business Expertise
This is the danger zone. The interface has been overly simplified. In the quest to simplify tasks and enhance aesthetics, we’ve stripped away useful features and control options.
For me, this represents one of the greatest challenges designers face when assigned to complex projects with limited user access. The risk of creating a “black box” design is substantial.
As Don Norman articulates in his book and presentations on Living with Complexity:
Life is complex, and tools must reflect that complexity.
This is why the frontier is a convex curve rather than a straight line:
- People progress in life. You can begin introducing advanced interface features like shortcuts and keyboard navigation early on. Users with lower business expertise can bypass these until they gain proficiency.
- People lose interface knowledge more rapidly. Avoid designing exclusively for high interface expertise levels. For instance, don’t depend solely on keyboard navigation; even business experts may forget how to use their tools after a vacation — remembering a work password can be tough enough after a week off!
So, what’s the takeaway from all this?
When I first discussed this theory at an event in 2018, I had no clue that this intersection of design and finance would lead me to adopt a portfolio approach in our design projects over the years.
Similar to the original theory regarding risks and returns, we consider our users’ expertise levels and approach projects differently based on where we aim to be on the Frontier. The financial products I previously mentioned can be represented as follows:
The grey area signifies another tool for ultra-advanced users who design and test financial instruments.
The second product aims to cater to a broader spectrum of the Frontier. We accommodate various levels of financial expertise through user settings, such as allowing advanced users to view additional financial data.
In terms of product portfolio, we have distinct offerings to address diverse user contexts. Ironically, our open architecture, which allows the reuse of the same backend systems, has enabled us to focus more on users rather than systems. We now understand that ‘efficient’ is not always synonymous with ‘simple,’ and ‘simple’ is not always ‘efficient.’
Thus, designers are more essential than ever in managing the complexities of life.
I hope this insight proves helpful!