Tip 36: Be simple and intuitive

Complicated isn’t necessary. Make it easy for customers to do what they gotta do with you. The easier the better. Your customers will thank you for it.

Examples

Amazon.com makes buying a book so simple, its a bit dangerous. With their “purchase with one-click feature”, I can have a new book loaded onto my Kindle within a matter of seconds. Its so simple, I can’t mess it up. Its so intuitive, it compels me to click away. Its such a no-brainer, I need to work on my clicking habit so I don’t overspend on books!
Turbo Tax makes the seemingly complicated task of filing taxes simple and intuitive by design. In their 2014 campaign, the company detailed that completing your taxes is as simple as answering a few questions about what you did the prior year.

Suggestions

Just because something is simple and intuitive for you, doesn’t mean its the same for your customer. Take the time to get input on your customer experience to see how your customers actually feel about accomplishing what you want them to do.
As a test for simplicity, try explaining or testing out what you want your customers to do with someone who has no experience with what you do. See if you get the results you are looking for in response to what you present to them.

Application for your business

Make a list of the top three actions you want your customers to make in your business. Next, make a list of the steps customers have to take to complete that action. Now identify at least one step you can remove to improve the simplicity of your process.
Brainstorm three people you can test your ideas or processes on to assess how “simple and intuitive” what you’re trying to communicate really is.