Why clarity is a starting point, not an afterthought

Most interfaces don't fail because they look bad. They fail because nobody can tell what they're looking at.

Clarity isn't a visual style you apply to a finished design — it's a constraint you commit to from the first decision. When clarity is the brief, the page almost designs itself: structure leads, type follows, and decoration becomes optional.

The test I keep coming back to

If a stranger can describe what your page does in one sentence after a five-second glance, the rest of the work has somewhere to land. If they can't, no amount of styling will quietly fix it.

What it costs

Clarity costs cleverness. You give up the showy hero, the unusual nav, the surprising layout. In exchange, the page does its job — quietly, the first time, for everyone.