Interface Effort

Why it's worth making something easy to understand.

The other day, I was listening to an episode of my current favourite podcast (Dialectic), and I could not follow along with the conversation. At all.

The topics were a bit too abstract and the speed of the conversation was a bit too fast.

After a few minutes of listening, I gave up and decided to switch to a different episode from the same podcast.

Instantly, I understood everything that was being discussed.

If you listen to someone speak about a topic you have absolutely no clue about, then immediately follow that with listening to someone from your field, you will have the same experience I had.

The experience itself is quite mundane.

Because my experience happened in such short succession and within the same podcast (not the same episode), it got me thinking about something.

I started thinking about how easy or difficult things are to interface with, and what that ease or difficulty does.

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Let’s talk about wayfinding signs.

If you don’t know what these are, take a look at this blog post, which has some seriously hilarious examples of poor wayfinding.

When the signage that’s specifically meant to help you navigate a place is confusing, you not only have a higher chance of becoming lost, you may also lose your desire to explore. You’re just too frustrated.

Interfacing comes down to energy.

The more energy required to understand something, the harder it is to interface with.

If something is hard to interface with, you’re less likely to explore it further than you already have.

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When I read a book, I think my single favourite format is a hardcover book (with the dust jacket removed).

The issue is, most of the hardcover books that I read don’t fit into my pockets. I guess I could permanently switch to cargo pants if I really cared that much.

The reason I love my Kobo, is because it’s portable. It does fit into my pocket.

The easier something is to interface with—this is especially true for an idea—the more portable it becomes.

The more portable something is, the more widely it can be used. I can read my Kobo in the dark and can’t say the same for my beloved hardcover book.

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The more deeply we interface with something, the greater the connection we form to that thing.

Let’s make that easy.