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Challenge
During a kickoff meeting with Cisco's business team, they outlined a design challenge: their complex enterprise application dashboard had too many links, making it confusing for users. They suggested adding a 'customize' button to let users hide links they didn't want. The team felt sure they understood their users and said they didn't need any more research.
They provided me with a timeline of two days to develop a design that meets the requirements.
Introducing the "Customize" Option
As a UX designer, I was concerned about the proposed solution. Adding a "customize" option would increase cognitive load and wouldn't actually change or update anything in the design; it would still look and feel the same. However, I realized that simply opposing their view wouldn’t be effective. I needed to develop a better design solution and provide strong reasons to avoid this approach. My first suggestion was straightforward: I recommended placing the "customize" button in the top right corner. This follows the Z-pattern of visual attention, meaning users are unlikely to miss the button, making it easier to discover.
Next, I need to convince them that their idea has some design flaws. To do that, I developed what they asked me to design and documented some pros and cons of this design solution.
The Pros & Cons Showdown:
- Pros: Users can hide infrequently used links and only display the ones they use regularly. This reduction will make the page appear less overwhelming.
- Cons: Having too many choices made it harder to decide, which is a problem according to Hick's Law. Plus, it still looked messy.
I presented my findings, highlighting the increased cognitive and kinetic load. It was time to introduce a better solution.
