> We are actively training the users into feeling those rules as superior. I would wager that we are not necessarily training users into feeling those rules as

> We are actively training the users into feeling those rules as superior. I would wager that we are not necessarily training users into feeling those rules as superior, but the absolute opposite — people tend to feel more at ease / comfortable when those rules are in place, and we want people to feel that way when they use our products, and so we use those rules. Ubiquity/familiarity is one reason why someone may feel at ease with a design, but it’s absolutely not the only reason. There are other more fundamental reasons why some designs are pleasant and others are unsettling / frustrating. For example we can’t explain why harmony sounds pleasant and why dissonance is unsettling. We can explain how they are different from each other and describe these differences with rules, but not necessarily why one makes us feel good and why another makes us feel bad. But the musician knows these things— that certain arrangements make people feel a certain way. And using this knowledge, the musician can compose music that falls in line with the effects that he wants it to have on people. Still, you don’t need to be a musician to know when a song sounds horrible. You don’t need to be a chef to know that the food tastes horrible. You don’t need to be a designer to know that it’s unpleasant. We can feel an unsettling interface even if we don’t necessarily know why it’s bad. Good designers are just more in tune to these feelings and also are able to identify and implement the technicalities as to how to make the design feel the way they want it to. We generally don’t want people to feel uncomfortable when using our interfaces (although maybe sometimes we do), so we tend to settle on some rules of thumb that we know make people more comfortable like “visual heierarchy” “vertical rhythm” “line length not more than 60 characters” “not having to make 6 clicks for something you do fairly often” “context (such as breadcrumb navigation)” etc. And, I mean, when you put a lot of these rules together you end up with a lot of interfaces that converge to look and feel the same. Doesn’t necessarily mean we are actively training people to feel that these things are better. At a fundamental level people already do. Good design is more of a discovery of human nature / an applied science.. than a conspiracy to make people like things. We don’t like food that tastes like crap. If everyone’s food tastes like crap, well, we’re going to be eating food that tastes like crap. Because we still need to eat. But the moment someone puts out food that tastes less like crap, people are going to want to eat that person’s food more than others’. And maybe that chef proclaims a rule that “when you include X in your recipe, or when you don’t do Y, your food tastes less like crap and more people want it.” And now more chefs who want to sell food are putting out food that follows that rule. And now more food on the market taste a little less like crap. That’s pretty much how design works as an industry.