Simplify Your UX With the KonMari Method and Boost User Engagement

“Does it spark joy?”

This simple question has become the trademark of Marie Kondo’s method for cleaning up. The organization guru, best-selling author, and face of the Netflix hit “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo,” has catalyzed a wave of decluttering among her fans.

The core of her organization philosophy, called the KonMari method, is this: By identifying the things that bring you joy, you can more easily throw out the things that merely take up space.

The result is less stuff, less stress, and greater inner peace. People everywhere have realized the benefits of tidying up — so much that thrift stores are swimming in donations.

Your UX is a prime area for the KonMari method. Spring has arrived, and there’s no better time to say goodbye to those elements that don’t spark joy and lead to user frustration. Armed with the right digital solutions and user analytics, you can eliminate the clutter and watch your user engagement soar.

Dive Deeper: It’s Time to Ditch Your UX Rulebook

Simplify your UX, step 1: Throw it out

The benefits of a clean UX extend far beyond achieving inner peace (though that’s important too).

When you simplify your UX, you’ll glean the benefits of a more aesthetic interface, memorable brand, and higher conversion rate.

You can’t create a successful UX without understanding your users’ goals, desires, and behaviors. Creating user journey maps that address each of these for your personas is standard practice. But you can also use these maps to better understand which features are most meaningful to your users, and which aren’t.

Anything that is superfluous, confusing, or interferes with navigation should be thrown out.

Complexity is the enemy of inner peace — and user retention

In your quest to keep it simple, be vigilant in your fight against complexity.

Studies have disproved the notion that people will leave your site or app if it takes more than three clicks to find what they’re looking for. While your user journey doesn’t need to be as rudimentary as three short clicks, simplicity should be a core value.

Behavioral economics tells us complexity is the enemy of an engaging user experience. When a user is faced with too many options, decision paralysis can occur.

The consequences of this are confusion, decision fatigue, and deferring the decision altogether. In other words, if you bombard your users with too many buttons, tabs, images, or text, you risk them leaving your page in search of something simpler.   

“Friction costs,” or barriers that are taxing to overcome, also hurt your UX. When the interface is difficult to navigate, or information is inaccessible, users will trip over these hurdles and likely drop off.

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Take the KonMari method to the next level with analytics

How exactly do you know which elements of your UX bring your users joy (and support your UX goals)?

The KonMari method is an important philosophy to apply to your UX. But you’ll probably need greater insights to actually put it to action.

Digital solutions that offer a close look into the user journey — including where users click, how long they spend on certain processes, and where they drop off — offer invaluable insight that can help inform your clean-up.

Having the ability to record and analyze the user journey gives you a retrospective view of user behavior and where they encounter “friction costs.” This can be invaluable to your optimization efforts. But a solution that enables a proactive response is better.

Based on a series of predefined contextual factors, such solutions can deploy real-time guidance so your user never feels lost or confused. When your UX includes seamless navigation, you’ll provide a tidy experience every time.

Simplify your UX to spark joy

Remember, the question is, “Does it spark joy?”

Joy means different things to different people. But we can safely assume your users find joy in an interface that is navigable, easy to use, and seamless.

By cleaning up your presentation and streamlining the user journey, you can ensure your users are always happy with their experience on your product or site.

By WalkMe Team

WalkMe pioneered the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) for organizations to utilize the full potential of their digital assets. Using artificial intelligence, machine learning and contextual guidance, WalkMe adds a dynamic user interface layer to raise the digital literacy of all users.