Conventions (Jakob's law)

Their wordsUsers spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.

Their wordsOn the contrary, a first-time visitor to a site will be able to use expert features without having to learn the site because he or she can transfer learning from other sites.

Their wordsScale this across people using the same conventions, and interface design starts to look like a form of mass education with no enrollment process.

Their wordsBut given the already complicated premise of long exposure photography, the best possible thing we could do — and as a designer this is hard to admit — was to stick to a fairly conventional design and let the actual features surprise and delight.

Their wordsObviousness comes from conforming to people’s existing mental models. Don’t waste time reinventing common UI patterns or paradigms unless they are at least 2x better, or you have some critical brand reason to do so.

Their wordsSometimes designers will go to great lengths to make a user interface novel, or minimal, or simple. This is the wrong goal. Novelty, minimalism or simplicity are good heuristics for obviousness, but do not mistake the means for the end.