2 ms·

I waffle back and forth between agreeing with you and disagreeing with you as I've asked myself that same question time and time again. Right now I agree with t

I waffle back and forth between agreeing with you and disagreeing with you as I've asked myself that same question time and time again. Right now I agree with the one caveat being that awful design can only pass when the information presented is well organized and easily found. I've seen designers changing tens of thousands for sites that look like they were built using a 90's style WYSIWYG editor measurably boost business because everything was easily found and understood despite how cheesy it looks. On the other end of the spectrum I've seen the same expensive design place so much emphasis on cool effects and be such an exercise in vanity for the designer the business got nothing from the site. I disagree that designers place too much importance on what they do. Design is very important. The mistake designers make is not knowing when it's important. They just want to design everything whether it's necessary or not. I was going to put an analogy here but I lost my train of thought.

adrianhoward 14y ago
the one caveat being that awful design can only pass when the information presented is well organized and easily found Nope. Awful design survives when the users incentives for using the site outweigh the pain caused by the bad design. I was comparison shopping for marbles this afternoon (don't ask) - several sites just got closed because I couldn't trivially see what the P&P was. I'm traveling to the US this year. Which means I have to get ESTA authentication from the lovely DHS. It doesn't matter how fking awful that site is. I will go through the process until it works since I have no other option.
tnorthcutt 14y ago
Right now I agree with the one caveat being that awful design can only pass when the information presented is well organized and easily found. That's not awful design.
- chefsurfing 14y ago
  > That's not awful design. Exactly! IMHO Ginny Redish is the woman leading designers and communicators out of the illusion of aesthetic masturbation and murky messaging toward clarity of signal and plain comprehension. I highly suggest that anyone using the web to communicate read her book "Letting Go of the Words": http://www.redish.net/books/letting-go-of-the-words http://www.redish.net/books/letting-go-of-the-words

adrianhoward 14y ago

the one caveat being that awful design can only pass when the information presented is well organized and easily found Nope. Awful design survives when the users incentives for using the site outweigh the pain caused by the bad design. I was comparison shopping for marbles this afternoon (don't ask) - several sites just got closed because I couldn't trivially see what the P&P was. I'm traveling to the US this year. Which means I have to get ESTA authentication from the lovely DHS. It doesn't matter how fking awful that site is. I will go through the process until it works since I have no other option.

tnorthcutt 14y ago

Right now I agree with the one caveat being that awful design can only pass when the information presented is well organized and easily found. That's not awful design.

chefsurfing 14y ago
> That's not awful design. Exactly! IMHO Ginny Redish is the woman leading designers and communicators out of the illusion of aesthetic masturbation and murky messaging toward clarity of signal and plain comprehension. I highly suggest that anyone using the web to communicate read her book "Letting Go of the Words": http://www.redish.net/books/letting-go-of-the-words http://www.redish.net/books/letting-go-of-the-words