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Love it. Well said. This trend of design fashions negatively impacting usability has become so blatantly visible across the web (and apps, and desktop interfa

Love it. Well said. This trend of design fashions negatively impacting usability has become so blatantly visible across the web (and apps, and desktop interfaces) during this century that I've become quite curious what psychological/organisational effects are at force. Are there historical examples of the same tendency that can be examined? Tools, signage, forms or public spaces becoming a progressively more difficult and less usable mess under the aegis of "making things easier for users"?

carsongross 11y ago
Are there historical examples of the same tendency that can be examined? Absolutely. Look at modern architecture. Try to figure out where the entrance of a modern building is: Old De Young: http://photovalet.com/data/comps/CSF/CSFV13P14_15.jpg http://photovalet.com/data/comps/CSF/CSFV13P14_15.jpg New De Young: http://www.thesfnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/deYoung-Museum.-Photo-courtesy-cisl.edu_.jpg http://www.thesfnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/deYoung-... Immense damage has been done in the built, visual and design world for fear of looking bourgeoisie.
- qewrffewqwfqew 11y ago
  > for fear of looking bourgeoisie Nice characterisation, I might re-use that. Surely somebody has done a study of this effect. In web and software design it's particularly hilarious (in an I-want-to-cry way) since so much good sense has been written (Tufte etc) which is completely discarded by these trends. I expect the same is true in architecture, only I'm less familiar with the literature of that domain.
  - carsongross 11y ago
    I don't know of any studies, but I found "From Bauhaus to Our House" a worthwhile read: http://www.amazon.com/From-Bauhaus-Our-House-Wolfe/dp/0312429142 http://www.amazon.com/From-Bauhaus-Our-House-Wolfe/dp/031242... It discusses how Gropius started off with more of a continental arts-and-crafts outlook, but that increasing competition for the intellectual and political purist high-ground lead to what we call, despairingly, the international style. A similar dynamic has played out with software UX: people were producing garish (but usable) UX with drop shadows, etc. and along came the anti-bourgeoisie puritans. They had a point, of course (they always do) but their solution was worse than the original problem.

carsongross 11y ago

Are there historical examples of the same tendency that can be examined? Absolutely. Look at modern architecture. Try to figure out where the entrance of a modern building is: Old De Young: http://photovalet.com/data/comps/CSF/CSFV13P14_15.jpg http://photovalet.com/data/comps/CSF/CSFV13P14_15.jpg New De Young: http://www.thesfnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/deYoung-Museum.-Photo-courtesy-cisl.edu_.jpg http://www.thesfnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/deYoung-... Immense damage has been done in the built, visual and design world for fear of looking bourgeoisie.

qewrffewqwfqew 11y ago
> for fear of looking bourgeoisie Nice characterisation, I might re-use that. Surely somebody has done a study of this effect. In web and software design it's particularly hilarious (in an I-want-to-cry way) since so much good sense has been written (Tufte etc) which is completely discarded by these trends. I expect the same is true in architecture, only I'm less familiar with the literature of that domain.
- carsongross 11y ago
  I don't know of any studies, but I found "From Bauhaus to Our House" a worthwhile read: http://www.amazon.com/From-Bauhaus-Our-House-Wolfe/dp/0312429142 http://www.amazon.com/From-Bauhaus-Our-House-Wolfe/dp/031242... It discusses how Gropius started off with more of a continental arts-and-crafts outlook, but that increasing competition for the intellectual and political purist high-ground lead to what we call, despairingly, the international style. A similar dynamic has played out with software UX: people were producing garish (but usable) UX with drop shadows, etc. and along came the anti-bourgeoisie puritans. They had a point, of course (they always do) but their solution was worse than the original problem.