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Making a clean and usable interface
What is simplicity? That is the property of being effortless, plain and understandable. It is not unexpected then that simplicity is commonly thrived for in user interface design. People naturally dislike complication in devices and software. Of course, a few individuals find joy in figuring out how stuff works, but for the major population, not being able to operate an interface leads to wasted time and frustration, and that's not a good thing.
If you can take a complex piece of hardware or a software application and somehow [rearrange, reorganize and redesign] the interface to make it simple and intuitive to use, then you're well on the path to delivering a better user experience.
One of the techniques you can incorporate in your interface design is Context based controls.
There are a couple of approaches you can use in interface design that relate to context and consistency. One suggests that you should keep controls consistent throughout your software or web portal to be sure that people know where everything is and don't get confused. The second approach is to modify key elements or navigation depending on the content of each page or window. The context based option is when you display only the stuff the person needs to complete the process they've approached in that particular context.
A good example of the two approaches can be seen in the revision of the Microsoft Office GUI. Office 2003, as well as all the previous versions, followed the design principle of leaving the controls unchanged. There was a bunch of buttons shown in the window constantly, and the controls didn't change no matter if you were working with columns, graphics, text or pictures. Microsoft remodeled this interface in the release of Office 2007 applying a content based approach. At the top you now see a ribbon - or a set of buttons. When clicked upon, each tab reveals a pack of controls related to any particular task, be it spell checking, working with graphics, or simply writing.
The content related approach allows you to demonstrate fewer interface elements at any single time point, but at the same time, more controls that are relevant to the task at hand. I wouldn't advice using a context-heavy approach for all-purpose web design because for most webpages users expect to see unchanging site-wide navigation. This is because every website is different, and it would make the browsing experience much harder if all the individual pages on a particular site were different too.
Having said this, this can be utilized for web applications because they're not just simple websites - they're pieces of software that live in the cloud. People are likely to spend a lot of time on a web app and will have more opportunity to learn how it works. The complexity of some web apps means that you really need to utilize the context based approach, because if you don't, there will be too much on the screen at any given time for anyone to process. By showing only a few relevant controls for a given task, your users can figure out what to do in much less time.
 Standard Toolbar Icons
Science Toolbar Icons
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