When we first launched CamView, we designed what we thought was a clean, simple interface. Large buttons, clear labels, intuitive navigation. And for most users, it worked great.
Then we watched an 82-year-old resident try to use it.
The Observation That Changed Everything
We were doing user testing at a Florida community. Most residents navigated the interface easily. But one woman—sharp, engaged, clearly intelligent—froze when she saw the screen.
"There's too much here," she said. "I just want to see if the courts are busy. I don't know what any of this means."
She was looking at an interface with maybe six elements: a header, four camera thumbnails, and a settings icon. To us, it was minimal. To her, it was overwhelming.
Understanding the Gap
The issue wasn't intelligence or capability. It was familiarity. This resident didn't grow up with computers. She didn't internalize the visual language of software interfaces. Icons that seemed obvious to us meant nothing to her.
Every unfamiliar element creates cognitive load. For someone without decades of software experience, even a "simple" interface can feel like a cockpit.
Building Simple Mode
We asked ourselves: what's the absolute minimum needed to check court availability?
- See which cameras are available
- Tap to view a camera
- That's it
Simple Mode strips away everything else:
- No settings icon
- No account menu
- No refresh buttons (it refreshes automatically)
- No status indicators beyond "available" or "unavailable"
- Maximum size camera thumbnails
- One tap to view, one tap to go back
Design Decisions
Big Thumbnails
In Simple Mode, camera previews are as large as possible. Users can often see court status without even tapping—if the thumbnail shows people playing, the court is occupied.
No Icons Without Labels
A hamburger menu icon means nothing to someone who's never seen one. In Simple Mode, there are no icons that require learned knowledge to understand.
Automatic Everything
No manual refresh needed. No session timeout warnings. The interface just works, continuously, without requiring user action.
Traffic Light Status
Green means available. Red means unavailable. Yellow means checking. Universal concepts that don't require explanation.
The Toggle
Simple Mode is opt-in, controlled by a single toggle in settings (which, yes, requires knowing how to access settings). Family members often enable it for parents or grandparents. Property managers can set it as the default for residents who request it.
Users who want more features can turn it off. But for those who just want to check if courts are busy, Simple Mode eliminates every possible point of confusion.
What We Learned
Simplicity isn't about fewer pixels—it's about fewer decisions. Every element on screen is a potential question: "What does this do? Should I tap it? What happens if I do?"
For users without software fluency, the kindest thing we can do is answer those questions before they're asked—by removing the elements entirely.
Simple Mode isn't dumbed down. It's focused. It does one thing, and it does it so clearly that anyone can use it, regardless of their technical background.