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Radical opinions, just speaking out loud. Design: Modern design sucks. Everything after 1990, especially after 2000 is completely shit. I truly mean all design

Radical opinions, just speaking out loud. Design: Modern design sucks. Everything after 1990, especially after 2000 is completely shit. I truly mean all design. Industrial Design to Architecture to the garbage you see in the browsers today. We threw away physical controls, can't even find them. Alps catalogue is dwindling and toggle switches are no more. Go explore how things used to be done, look up advertisements from 1970's. Also, the Big Tech design monoculture is shit. Everyone suddently in 2020 decided to add rounded corners. It happened almost overnight like a meme spreading through the design circles. Globalisation: Imagine if you were to travel to Japan in the year 1890. Everyone wore kimonos. It was a prestine, isolated and incredibly rich culture. Same with France or US or any nation. It is fun to explore how US and USSR had invented stuff during the cold war. Russia had their own mechanical watches to titanium alloys. When large groups (millions of people) are isolated, they can create some amazing stuff on their own. Connecting the world with wires was a bad idea. It destroyed cultures into a giant globalised culture. I wish Globalisation didn't happen and the internet was never invented except for highly controlled and regulated uses. Masks: Facial expressions are key to communication and we've just defaced our selves in public settings, possibly forever. This is not good. Humans evolved to look at faces and see expressions. Edit: Interesting to see downvotes in a thread about outrageous ideas. It only confirms it!

heavyset_go 5y ago
IMO, a lot of modern design is the result of answering the question, "how can we make this cheaper and mass produced?" instead of, "how can we make this more pleasant to use or look at?"
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  Agreed, mass-production is another by-product of Globalization for the most part.
- finite_jest 5y ago
  There is that. But there's also the "forever redesign" problem. It goes roughly like this: the designers would always advocate for a redesign, as it is more exciting, and also because it creates more new tasks/jobs for them. But improving things is hard, and entropy is not on our side. So, it is quite possible that the new grand redesign will be less functional than the battle-tested old one. If we are lucky, the new design might be at least more aesthetically pleasing. [1] [1]: Perhaps in part just because aesthetics are a function of fashion, and the new design can be up-to-date with the current trends.
afarviral 5y ago
While I'm in agreement that usability has taken a hit in the name of mass production and in UI due to the ubiquity of touchscreens, I suspect a detailed analysis will prove your overall premise to be false. I think there is a standard of beauty and usability that is evolving in a healthy substrate of thought and taste. Some good ideas get losts due to time but will be rediscovered before long. Whilst I am often vexxed by both new and old design choices I am often utterly flawed as things align perfectly with my own tastes. The choices lovingly adhering to a given vision or theme. There are products both timeless and new that are a breeze to use, sparing your time and sanity.
jim-jim-jim 5y ago
In the 1890s Japan was well into the Meiji era, and was keenly adopting all sorts of Western science, philosophy, and fashion. Russia was also an empire spanning many different cultures. Ditto for France, and the US was well on its way. It's one of the most interesting times in history precisely because so many cultures were mingling in ways they hadn't before. But I get your point. What we now understand as "globalism" is ideologically and aesthetically revolting. I don't think this ugliness is rooted in diversity, however. On the contrary, it's a product of a monopolistic and imperial form of liberalism. Resisting this drudgery will require more international solidarity against rootless "thought leaders" beholden to no organic culture.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  I don't think something like this can arise from Globalisation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQAmZ_kR8S8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQAmZ_kR8S8

heavyset_go 5y ago

IMO, a lot of modern design is the result of answering the question, "how can we make this cheaper and mass produced?" instead of, "how can we make this more pleasant to use or look at?"

systemvoltage 5y ago
Agreed, mass-production is another by-product of Globalization for the most part.
finite_jest 5y ago
There is that. But there's also the "forever redesign" problem. It goes roughly like this: the designers would always advocate for a redesign, as it is more exciting, and also because it creates more new tasks/jobs for them. But improving things is hard, and entropy is not on our side. So, it is quite possible that the new grand redesign will be less functional than the battle-tested old one. If we are lucky, the new design might be at least more aesthetically pleasing. [1] [1]: Perhaps in part just because aesthetics are a function of fashion, and the new design can be up-to-date with the current trends.

afarviral 5y ago

While I'm in agreement that usability has taken a hit in the name of mass production and in UI due to the ubiquity of touchscreens, I suspect a detailed analysis will prove your overall premise to be false. I think there is a standard of beauty and usability that is evolving in a healthy substrate of thought and taste. Some good ideas get losts due to time but will be rediscovered before long. Whilst I am often vexxed by both new and old design choices I am often utterly flawed as things align perfectly with my own tastes. The choices lovingly adhering to a given vision or theme. There are products both timeless and new that are a breeze to use, sparing your time and sanity.

jim-jim-jim 5y ago

In the 1890s Japan was well into the Meiji era, and was keenly adopting all sorts of Western science, philosophy, and fashion. Russia was also an empire spanning many different cultures. Ditto for France, and the US was well on its way. It's one of the most interesting times in history precisely because so many cultures were mingling in ways they hadn't before. But I get your point. What we now understand as "globalism" is ideologically and aesthetically revolting. I don't think this ugliness is rooted in diversity, however. On the contrary, it's a product of a monopolistic and imperial form of liberalism. Resisting this drudgery will require more international solidarity against rootless "thought leaders" beholden to no organic culture.

systemvoltage 5y ago
I don't think something like this can arise from Globalisation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQAmZ_kR8S8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQAmZ_kR8S8