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Functional design ain't pretty.

542458 5y ago
I don’t think is true. Functional design may not be optimally pretty in some cases. However, the eye finds things like readability, organization, and visual hierarchy to be visually appealing - so functional design can very well be pretty in some cases (for example, Blender’s UI is highly functional, but still relatively visually pleasing). I’m not saying that all functional design is pretty, but I am saying that rejecting all pretty designs as non-functional is incorrect.
- b112 5y ago
  And regardless, function before form does not invalidate form after the fact. EG, you're building a bridge. It needs to do its job, and not collapse. There are many perfectly functional designs, which have appealing form. Yet, if you want to actually be able to use the beast, it: - needs to be wide enough to pass traffic, but not too wide (waste of money) - needs to be able to keep the traffic from careening off into the abyss each use - needs 100 other things such as the above But once the above "functional" criteria are met, form is fine. Why not make it look good? Great! Yet, don't (as an example) overlay form which then reflects sunlight into driver's eyes, so they can't see and crash on the bridge. This is all reasonably understood with normal day objects. But, when someone engineers a bridge, they have to go to a decade of schooling + years on the job, to rise to that position. And the same for people designing beautiful buildings, or homes. They know the restrictions, the load requirements, and then they layer extra on top of that. Not even sure what I'm fully rambling on here about, except I guess that I think UX/UI should only be attempted after years of using software in a professional capacity. I was in to a store the other day, and they were looking up stock. It was an ncurses display. And the employee was zooming through it, as typical, with keyboard shortcuts, and FAST. UX/UI is really the problem. Making things pretty gets in the way of functional first. Keep it function before form, and you're fine. And if anyone rattles on about Apple and Steve Jobs, from what I've read, heard, and watched? He was 100% about "function first!". He'd go ballistic if simple functionality was hard to get at, or missing, or buggy, or incomprehensible. Yup, he wanted form to look good. But that came on top of proper, perfect function. Which is its own beauty.

I don’t think is true. Functional design may not be optimally pretty in some cases. However, the eye finds things like readability, organization, and visual hierarchy to be visually appealing - so functional design can very well be pretty in some cases (for example, Blender’s UI is highly functional, but still relatively visually pleasing). I’m not saying that all functional design is pretty, but I am saying that rejecting all pretty designs as non-functional is incorrect.

b112 5y ago
And regardless, function before form does not invalidate form after the fact. EG, you're building a bridge. It needs to do its job, and not collapse. There are many perfectly functional designs, which have appealing form. Yet, if you want to actually be able to use the beast, it: - needs to be wide enough to pass traffic, but not too wide (waste of money) - needs to be able to keep the traffic from careening off into the abyss each use - needs 100 other things such as the above But once the above "functional" criteria are met, form is fine. Why not make it look good? Great! Yet, don't (as an example) overlay form which then reflects sunlight into driver's eyes, so they can't see and crash on the bridge. This is all reasonably understood with normal day objects. But, when someone engineers a bridge, they have to go to a decade of schooling + years on the job, to rise to that position. And the same for people designing beautiful buildings, or homes. They know the restrictions, the load requirements, and then they layer extra on top of that. Not even sure what I'm fully rambling on here about, except I guess that I think UX/UI should only be attempted after years of using software in a professional capacity. I was in to a store the other day, and they were looking up stock. It was an ncurses display. And the employee was zooming through it, as typical, with keyboard shortcuts, and FAST. UX/UI is really the problem. Making things pretty gets in the way of functional first. Keep it function before form, and you're fine. And if anyone rattles on about Apple and Steve Jobs, from what I've read, heard, and watched? He was 100% about "function first!". He'd go ballistic if simple functionality was hard to get at, or missing, or buggy, or incomprehensible. Yup, he wanted form to look good. But that came on top of proper, perfect function. Which is its own beauty.