Complexity vs. Simplicity

[dknise]

Hey guys,

I'm running into a bit of an issue with the review of my online console and onboarding process. The company I run redefines digital advertising. One of the current pain points of digital advertising is the lack of control the advertiser has over how their advertisements are displayed to the user, and the quantities in which they are displayed.

The way I picture my software is in a comparison to Microsoft Excel. Anybody can open up Excel and start a basic table-like spreadsheet, but some users are what we call "power users." These guys know the ins and outs of the program, and really take full advantage of it.

When starting an ad campaign through my company, you can make it as simple or as complicated as you like. During peer reviews, the complicated stuff ALWAYS comes into question. The only solution to their "problems" with it is to take out the features.

I have two features called "User Budget" and "Claim User For." To the right of the form is more information regarding their usage, but the assumption is that everyone who goes through the process will have been briefed on the features and their intended use. Even if they aren't, they can easily read into how to use them to their advantage. Neither of these features make any sense to any entrepreneur or developer I've talked to. They want them out, but I consider them a key to the value and control.

The way I look at these features, are like trying to design a pivot table or do vlookups in Excel. You're not going to be able to jump right in with no knowledge and find value in them. Does that make them completely worthless and useless? Absolutely not! Can these features be explained just in 2 words for the name? Not at all either.

Sooooo... the dilemna... what do you guys think I should do? I have this huge bias with software companies attempting to oversimplify things to the point where it no longer provides any value. I want my system to be a Microsoft Excel, where they can either open it up and use it, or dig into the heartier details which put them behind the steering wheel for their marketing.

Thanks
-David

 

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[Ikke]

I think the best way to go would be to make it possible to use it with minor knowledge, but also the possibility to go full advanced. Sort of like a equalizer. An equalizer often has a few preset options, like rock, jazz, pop, vocal, etc (simple version) but you can also adjust the volume of small frequency bandwidths (advanced version)

I hope my explanation makes any sense

 

[Mrs. BRKb]

First impression of the terms: User Budget sounds good. Not sure what Claim User For would be.

I'm probably representative of your new user base. If you had an explanatory bubble that appeared when a mouse hovered over the term, that might give folks enough information to decide if they wanted to investigate the feature/s more and/or try them out.

I vote leave them in, unless there are negative consequences with usability.

 

[Tom.V]

Being a potential user of your platform (site says you are beta testing, any chance I might be able to participate?) User budget has an obvious meaning. Claim User For? Claim User For What? Keep in mind unless you are attempting to become the absolute end all, be all in your industry, I wouldn't try to make up stuff that you expect people to memorize and use from the start. Kinda reminds me of learning a language or a confusing IDE. Sure it will make things easier once one becomes accustomed with the user interface and the system itself, but it sounds like it might cause a little pain in the assery along the way. Especially considering how many different ad platforms are out there already with confusing enough interfaces. Perhaps there is something else you could call that specific feature?

 

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[TedM]

Does it all need to be visible at the same time? Can you choose a more streamlined view or the more complex one?

 

[dknise]

Thanks guys for your responses.

First impression: User Budget sounds good. Not sure what Claim User For would be.

I forgot to include the descriptions! haha After further discussion, we're removing the "Claim User For" feature and simply including it in the workflow. The feature allows an advertiser to "claim" a user, exclusively displaying their advertisements for a period of set dollar amount or number of impressions. Would you like control over this option?

User budget provides a limit to the amount of impressions one user may receive from your ad campaign. You may choose to either set the limit by an exact dollar amount or by the number of impressions you would like the user to see.

I'm probably representative of your new user base. If you had an explanatory bubble that appeared when a mouse hovered over the term, that might give folks enough information to decide if they wanted to investigate the feature/s more and/or try them out.

Oh cool, what industry are you in and how do you utilize digital advertising?

Exactly what I have, the descriptions for the features are on the page with easy hovering and linking to the descriptions.

I vote leave them in, unless there are negative consequences with usability.

There are negative consequences to usability, in terms of hey, there's all this new complexity I have access to, but it's all optional. The offset of including a feature in any application is the learning curve, but the value an additional, optional feature can provide is huge.


Currently, the features allow for specific user targeting. Often times advertisers know the amount of times a consumer needs to see their brand to result in a conversion, or the amount of money they are willing to spend promoting their brand to an individual. I even went as far as to allow geolocation targeting to deliver specific ads to geographic regions targeting down within a mile. The overall consensus from my peer reviewers... remove all of it. When it's all stripped away and just displaying ads randomly, I really don't see the value that it would provide to an advertiser. I feel like they need that control.

 

[dknise]

Being a potential user of your platform (site says you are beta testing, any chance I might be able to participate?) User budget has an obvious meaning. Claim User For? Claim User For What? Keep in mind unless you are attempting to become the absolute end all, be all in your industry, I wouldn't try to make up stuff that you expect people to memorize and use from the start. Kinda reminds me of learning a language or a confusing IDE. Sure it will make things easier once one becomes accustomed with the user interface and the system itself, but it sounds like it might cause a little pain in the assery along the way. Especially considering how many different ad platforms are out there already with confusing enough interfaces. Perhaps there is something else you could call that specific feature?

Looks like this was a good post to make. I am currently in beta with several game developers, although I will not be having a beta with advertisers.

When learning a new language or a confusing IDE, the confusing stuff is often required to complete the task. I made my onboarding process as simple as campaign name, advertising category, launch date, and upload your assets. If you so choose to set global budgets, individual ad limits, geolocation filters, exclude target audiences and game categories, or even specific games and companies, anything that can possibly target your campaign to the specific people and demographic you want, I give you the power to do so. There isn't a "painless" way when giving a power user full control.

Does it all need to be visible at the same time? Can you choose a more streamlined view or the more complex one?

Interestingly enough, I went with an old design philosophy: Display everything at once. The form to add or edit an ad campaign or publishable content is a single form. While most companies are beginning to shy away from it, the consistent trend is the ones who make the information accessible in the easiest fashion take the cake. To an oldschool UI designer, that means giving them all the information they need to complete their task. Many, many, many people would disagree, but I strongly feel that people under-estimate the average persons ability to process large amounts of information.

 

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