The Fundamental Flaw in Flat Design

Speaker: Kate Moran

Flat design is an aesthetic style that doesn’t use any realistic or three-dimensional visual effects. When designers pursue a flat aesthetic, they often end up removing most of the signifiers (visual clues that tell users what’s interactive) from their interfaces. This lack of signifiers, combined with the popularity of flat design in the mainstream web since 2013, has been slowly altering how your users move through digital interfaces.

If your organization is considering adopting a flat, flat-ish, flat 2.0, or minimalist aesthetic, you should first be aware of the potential consequences. Even if your site isn’t flat, you can bet your users are experiencing flat design on other sites, and it’s changed their expectations of your designs. This seminar explains what’s causing this epidemic of click uncertainty, and how you can avoid its negative consequences.

What You’ll Learn

• Why flat design can hurt user efficiency and contribute to a sense of powerlessness
• How differentiate between often-confused digital design terms: flat design, flat 2.0, flat-ish, and minimalist design
• What function signifiers play in digital interfaces, and how to design strong signifiers
• How young adults are impacted differently by flat design

Topics Covered

• Flat design vs. flat 2.0 vs. minimalist design
• Signifiers and affordances
• Clickability
• User empowerment
• Click uncertainty
• Young adults and flat design

About the Speaker
Kate Moran is a Senior User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group. She conducts research and leads training seminars to help digital product teams expand and improve their UX practice. Her research findings and recommendations are informed by her background in information theory and design, as well as her development experience.