Jieyu Xiong

About Complexion Reduction

A few months ago, I came across a new terminology ‘Complexion Reduction’ from Michael Horton’s post. It rippled through the center of my heart. This design trend in mobile perfectly described what I was trying to achieve more and more in my daily work. Generally speaking, it is a natural and rational design evolution when user needs and functionalities are truly valued. But ‘Complexion Reduction’ does NOT fit all.


1. What is ‘Complexion Reduction’?

If you are an avid user of some popular Apps like Instagram, Medium or Airbnb, you probably already noticed that they all look identical with these following details:

  • Absence of colors

Large color blocks are removed from the design, leaving the UI to be black and white ‘wireframy’.

  • Prominent texts

Headlines and titles are larger, bolder and thicker. They really stand out and become impossible to ignore.

  • Universal icons

The icon designs share the same minimal style. The actual looks of them are like variations based on one origin.

  • ‘Normcore’

‘Complexion Reduction’ in design reminds me of ‘Normcore’ in fashion. Both trends reduce flashy and shouty markers to value the basic core. To fashion, the core is people. To product design, it’s satisfying user’s needs.


2. What’s good about ‘Complexion Reduction’?

Not long ago, Skeuomorphic Design was so widely used when computer interfaces were introduced more and more into every aspect of people’s modern life. Then Flat UI and Material Design knocked the door of simplicity. Now it seems like ‘Complexion Reduction’ is against design at all, seems like it pushes the trend way too far near a ‘No UI’ zone.

But, it’s a good sign, showing that UI designers are undoubtedly focusing on interaction, functionality and content rather than superfluous visuals. ‘Complexion Reduction’ is content-driven and user-centered. It nods to the theory that great UI is invisible so that users can digest the content to achieve their goal without distractions.


3. Now let’s look at the challenging side.

Although I clap for this content-first shift in design, I admit that it makes UI designer’s job even more difficult, especially for UI designers in an agency environment. Here are a few thoughts around the challenges:


  • Follow user’s needs, not design trends.

One thing I always keep in mind is that there’s not any ‘One style fits all’ situation in UI design. ‘Complexion Reduction’ only works when a product is based on a large amount of dynamic content. More importantly, it is user’s need that drives the visual style, not design trend. Today, designers are surrounded by a tremendous amount of comp inspirations on sites like Behance and Dribbble, it is so easy to take the shortcut by copying a popular design trend without thinking about the users and functionality. This puts the cart before the horse.

Possible Solution: 

Right now, I am trying to step away from looking at digital design patterns when seeking for inspirations, instead, I research on painting, sculpture, photography or even physical objects. This approach helps me to design based on user’s abstract feelings (e.g. zen and comfortable) than copying from popular detail design decisions (e.g. white background with black texts). 


  • “The design looks like wireframes, like unfinished.” “It looks similar as other products, what’s the differentiator?”

From my perspective (a designer working in an agency), minimalist styles like ‘Complexion Reduction’ are harder to design and extremely difficult to get client’s thumbs up even though the visual satisfies user’s needs to browse dynamic content more efficiently. 

Possible Solution: 

- Explain the rational behind design is as important as the design itself. This year, I used the following outline to clarify how the visual and interface design decisions are made in several Proof of Concept projects.

Outline (Here’s an example of how to use this outline): Interview Result Brief -> Persona -> One happy user flow -> Style Tile ->Display interface design to explain the flow in depth. 

- Good designers never say a design is perfect. They can always push the limits. It is true that lots of content-based products look similar at first glance, but the details in design and in micro-interaction separate the good ones from the others. 



Updated on Nov 13, 2017




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