Business Insider carries a great story explaining how easy-peasy blogging platform Tumblr is outperforming its rival Posterous. According to the article it comes down to the simplicity of the Tumblr UX which is even clearer than its rival's pages.

Of course designers and developers have been pleading for simplicity for years. And every now and again you come across a great example of UX design that really does follow this principle. Here's the home page of UK rail enquiries:

















It really doesn't require any explanation. Except that it does one thing extremely well without sacrificing advertising or other classic design features.

Now take a look at the equivalent pages from DeutscheBahn (Germany) and SNCF (France).









































Did you find the timetable widgets?

I'm no developer, and I'll let Andrew Martin pick up the conversation here if needed. But with the UK site I know where I am immediately. And I don't feel like I'm working through a database or an overengineered spreadsheet (drill further down and the pages are equally effective).

The more you look at it, the more it looks like a Tumblr or Posterous stream, especially when you scroll further down. Granted, not every business has such a simple offer. But www.nationalrail.co.uk works on principles that most consumer and retail sites should aspire to.