4 ms·
It seems this article is idolizing the ugliness of the site as being some some kind of contrarian user-centered design. User-centered doesn't have to mean ugly,
by dceddia 7y ago
It seems this article is idolizing the ugliness of the site as being some some kind of contrarian user-centered design. User-centered doesn't have to mean ugly, though. There's a whole lot of middle ground between "default-styled page from 1995" and "2020 SaaS landing page with flashy illustrations that doesn't explain what it does".
You might remember http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ vs. http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/ http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/ from a few years back. Some minimal tweaks to typography/colors/spacing can make a big difference.
- whoisjuan 7y agoNot only that. Aesthetics are a function of design. They allow us to understand a message, follow a narrative and more deeply empathize with objects to the point that we may be forgiving of small issues. They are part of how we behave and interact with many things that surround us and influence us. They help us to create mental models for the world because they become an attribute of the objects we desire or loathe. Of course, utilitarian and plain boring design aesthetics have a place in the world, but imagine if everything was like this website. It would be almost impossible to generate opinions because we don't have any distinct reference to help us imagine if something could be more harmonic and visually appealing. I believe that the goal of aesthetics is precisely to empower people to generate feelings toward objects that otherwise wouldn't generate a connection. It's the same reason why we can appreciate art or admire nature. Because those things are full of visual attributes that help us to elicit thoughts and re-describe things as we see them (ugly, funny, colorful, boring, etc).