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Thanks to Big Tech, web design has become a monoculture feeding off of each other, regressing at an ever increasing pace away from functionalism. Future looks v

Thanks to Big Tech, web design has become a monoculture feeding off of each other, regressing at an ever increasing pace away from functionalism. Future looks very very dark.

worker767424 5y ago
I work for Big Tech. It has its faults, but blaming a design monoculture on it isn't fair. Design trends are bigger than a single company, and while there are definitely enough companies to see some amount of variation in UI and style, they tend to look similar because of tech's ubiquity. You don't want to be the company big or small that goes off in a different direction and can't get traction because you're using design patterns users aren't familiar with. It's like the metronome synchronization experiment: even a fully democratized space can trend towards monoculture.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  I disagree, it is completely and utterly deranged and appalling: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24965293 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24965293 It starts at Big Tech (Material Design for example). I think we should teach designers history of UX/UI and how things used to be. From 1950's typewriter UX to the latest AR tech. This education can put perspective and curate a better understanding of the user. A more empathetic approach. Not fashion trends, rounded corners and huge purple typography. Big Tech operates like a horse-eyed A/B tests driven UX/UI machine and doesn't understand anything but. There is no Steve Jobs to overrule.
- 0des 5y ago
  I think a lot of big corps try to emulate each other aesthetically, to an extent. It's not because they're in love with themselves or collude in the way we'd imagine, I think it's because they are afraid to risk making a dud doing something different, like the Microsoft Kin or Digg v3. Here's a good example: Check out all of the small SUV's you see now, they're all elaborations on the same shape and form. I think this is by design, in that deviating from the norm right now is not something that is rewarded, but giving something visually 'safe' that hits most of the needs of their customer is acceptable. [0] - https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*RCyvppE9R3x85bCAmnFjbA.jpeg https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*RCyvppE9R3x85bCAmn... [1] - https://5thcolor.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/all-cars-look-alike-nu.jpg https://5thcolor.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/all-cars-look-a...
kristopolous 5y ago
It's more about the misattribution for the causes of success. For instance I'd like to claim that Apple is an industry leader that has been misattributed as a design leader; it isn't their slick aluminum rectangles in isolation, it is them cohabiting with a marketing message and brand position working together that gave it the entire perception that leads to their success. If say, Dolly Parton came out with a restaurant themed after a country jamboree and it went gangbusters it'd likely be incorrect to conclude Starbucks should have bales of hay and employees in 10 gallon hats and spurs to increase sales. A country themed restaurant is the correct way for Dolly Parton to execute a restaurant because she's Dolly Parton. It's not a brilliant idea in isolation and it's certainly not one that should elbow its way into other established brands in the same product category. Yet this is the exact kind of logic that is done in software. We ignore the context of why something was successful for a particular institution and pretend it is transferable to all similar institutions regardless of context. It's just not smart.

Thanks to Big Tech, web design has become a monoculture feeding off of each other, regressing at an ever increasing pace away from functionalism. Future looks very very dark.

worker767424 5y ago

I work for Big Tech. It has its faults, but blaming a design monoculture on it isn't fair. Design trends are bigger than a single company, and while there are definitely enough companies to see some amount of variation in UI and style, they tend to look similar because of tech's ubiquity. You don't want to be the company big or small that goes off in a different direction and can't get traction because you're using design patterns users aren't familiar with. It's like the metronome synchronization experiment: even a fully democratized space can trend towards monoculture.

systemvoltage 5y ago
I disagree, it is completely and utterly deranged and appalling: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24965293 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24965293 It starts at Big Tech (Material Design for example). I think we should teach designers history of UX/UI and how things used to be. From 1950's typewriter UX to the latest AR tech. This education can put perspective and curate a better understanding of the user. A more empathetic approach. Not fashion trends, rounded corners and huge purple typography. Big Tech operates like a horse-eyed A/B tests driven UX/UI machine and doesn't understand anything but. There is no Steve Jobs to overrule.
0des 5y ago
I think a lot of big corps try to emulate each other aesthetically, to an extent. It's not because they're in love with themselves or collude in the way we'd imagine, I think it's because they are afraid to risk making a dud doing something different, like the Microsoft Kin or Digg v3. Here's a good example: Check out all of the small SUV's you see now, they're all elaborations on the same shape and form. I think this is by design, in that deviating from the norm right now is not something that is rewarded, but giving something visually 'safe' that hits most of the needs of their customer is acceptable. [0] - https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*RCyvppE9R3x85bCAmnFjbA.jpeg https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*RCyvppE9R3x85bCAmn... [1] - https://5thcolor.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/all-cars-look-alike-nu.jpg https://5thcolor.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/all-cars-look-a...

kristopolous 5y ago

It's more about the misattribution for the causes of success. For instance I'd like to claim that Apple is an industry leader that has been misattributed as a design leader; it isn't their slick aluminum rectangles in isolation, it is them cohabiting with a marketing message and brand position working together that gave it the entire perception that leads to their success. If say, Dolly Parton came out with a restaurant themed after a country jamboree and it went gangbusters it'd likely be incorrect to conclude Starbucks should have bales of hay and employees in 10 gallon hats and spurs to increase sales. A country themed restaurant is the correct way for Dolly Parton to execute a restaurant because she's Dolly Parton. It's not a brilliant idea in isolation and it's certainly not one that should elbow its way into other established brands in the same product category. Yet this is the exact kind of logic that is done in software. We ignore the context of why something was successful for a particular institution and pretend it is transferable to all similar institutions regardless of context. It's just not smart.