Dashboard with sidebar or simple white ui

Might be overthinking big time but my app i build mainly without user iteration so far (early adopter tests are running at the moment and are positive so far) is having a pretty techy dashbord appearance with sidebar and stuff but noe i think it might be better to do the design in all white, simple and minimalistic. Is this some sort of productive procrastination or valid? I think my users are not that into tech stuff and might be overwhelmed with a technical appearance.

What do you think? When do you think something like a side nav (ofc this is just a placeholder for all things regarding a more advanced look) is necessary?