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For some years now, I've used the phrase "cargo cult design" to describe those designers that copy the look of a successful product without understanding the re

For some years now, I've used the phrase "cargo cult design" to describe those designers that copy the look of a successful product without understanding the reasons behind it. As a UX professional, I'm often told that we can just copy the menus in someone else's product, or the colors they've chosen, or any number of other decisions they've made about form and function. It's why you see printers with touchscreens where buttons would actually work better, cars with vestigial body effects that do nothing, skeuomorphic elements where none belong, or "flat UI" where a bit of skeuomorphism would have helped the user. There's no substitute for starting from user and business needs, instead of "what do the other guys do?" I'd love it if more people started dismissing the idea of "cargo cult design."

noir_lord 13y ago
It's an interesting balance I've worked places where the boss thought the best way to go was to do nothing like the other guys do..which resulted in a product that was essentially unusable. These days I write "enterprisey" software and I've found that a clear simple design with controls that people understand is much better than an unconventional design (even if the unconventional design is more rational). I suspect this is related to the classic principle of least surprise/don't make me think mantra. That said I'm a back end developer who can handle some front end stuff and most definetly not a UX expert so my opinion is worth what you paid for it.
pessimizer 13y ago
>I'd love it if more people started dismissing the idea of "cargo cult design." I'm sure everybody does that, they just rationalize what they're doing as not just blindly copying, by coming up with "everybody knows" reasons for design features without any data to back it up.
andy_adams 13y ago
I generally agree with you, but when you're bootstrapping a business or working on a tight deadline, you can save a ton of time by just copying what others have done. I've been bootstrapping my business, and when it comes to things like designing my homepage I can try to reinvent it from the ground up, or I can follow the cargo cult and copy the Stereotypical Startup Home Page (as patio11 calls it) and move on. Unoriginal, yes. But it frees me from making that decision, and I know there is some sensibility behind it, even if it is a cargo-cultish thing.

noir_lord 13y ago

It's an interesting balance I've worked places where the boss thought the best way to go was to do nothing like the other guys do..which resulted in a product that was essentially unusable. These days I write "enterprisey" software and I've found that a clear simple design with controls that people understand is much better than an unconventional design (even if the unconventional design is more rational). I suspect this is related to the classic principle of least surprise/don't make me think mantra. That said I'm a back end developer who can handle some front end stuff and most definetly not a UX expert so my opinion is worth what you paid for it.

pessimizer 13y ago

>I'd love it if more people started dismissing the idea of "cargo cult design." I'm sure everybody does that, they just rationalize what they're doing as not just blindly copying, by coming up with "everybody knows" reasons for design features without any data to back it up.

andy_adams 13y ago

I generally agree with you, but when you're bootstrapping a business or working on a tight deadline, you can save a ton of time by just copying what others have done. I've been bootstrapping my business, and when it comes to things like designing my homepage I can try to reinvent it from the ground up, or I can follow the cargo cult and copy the Stereotypical Startup Home Page (as patio11 calls it) and move on. Unoriginal, yes. But it frees me from making that decision, and I know there is some sensibility behind it, even if it is a cargo-cultish thing.