5 ms·

Stages of Accepting Your Design Sucks

24 points by codeusasoft 12y ago

V-2 12y ago
Instructive, but the design of the website itself is not that great - eg. FAQ link takes you nowhere. Just by reading what's on the site I'm not 100% sure what the thing does - is it like Spotify and Grooveshark? I'd like to have a more unambiguous idea of what I would be installing :)
- codeusasoft 12y ago
  I've fixed that issue. https://aurous.me/faq/ https://aurous.me/faq/
  - comex 12y ago
    Just FYI, there are a multitude of grammar errors in that FAQ; get it edited to avoid leaving a bad impression. :)
  - V-2 12y ago
    Indeed :) Thanks.
gdrulia 12y ago
Design is complicated and very much like taste - subjective. Of course there are guidelines of what goes together and what not. Overall it is nice to see transition between the different stages of the product. As per product itself, I assume it is very much alike tomahawk, is that right? It would be nice to have well designed tomahawk type of product which would work fast and be easy to use, so keep up. Want to notice that I've tried to download application, but windows "SmartScreen" tells me that app is from Unknown Publisher and strongly encourages NOT to install. I assume this will prevent most windows users from installing this application.
- aikah 12y ago
  > Design is complicated and very much like taste - subjective. The problem is "Design" is a bit like UX/UI ,it doesnt really mean anything concrete,but some vague thought process to create a product. Usability is not subjective,that's why I prefer that word. Usability is a hard science,there are rules,just like in programming. You want a product to be smart,to facilitate whatever your user is trying to do,to make simple what might sound complex,but you also want to get user's feeback because they'll always try to use your app in unexpected ways. I think that field could benificiate from all these machine learning experts.Imagine apps that really adapt to their users,trying to learn patterns,adapting the UI depending on usage etc ... I'm not aware of the researches in that field,but it could be the next big thing in usability.
- bluthru 12y ago
  >Design is complicated and very much like taste - subjective. Aesthetics are subjective. Design is not. Design can contain aesthetics, which complicates things. Just because something is difficult to measure doesn't mean that it can't be measured. A design exists to solve a problem. How well it solves problems is not subjective. The priorities might be subjective, but how well it fulfills its goals is not subjective.
  - jrochkind1 12y ago
    > How well it solves problems is not subjective. It may very well solve the problem better for some people than others. Which is one definition of 'subjective'. You can decide you want to target some types or groups of people and not others, for commercial or other reasons. Even "most people" is some people and not others, and is a choice.
    - bluthru 12y ago
      >It may very well solve the problem better for some people than others. Which is one definition of 'subjective'. That's like saying a hammer's effectiveness is subjective because it doesn't work well with screws.
no_future 12y ago
>Realizing you’re a software developer and not a designer I hate when people pigeonhole themselves by giving themselves and others labels like this. What's stopping someone from being both a great designer and a great software developer? Visual/UX design is actually very similar in its principles to software and engineering type of design in my opinion.
- bunkat 12y ago
  While there might not be anything stopping somebody from being both a great developer and great designer, I've never come across somebody that is (though I've come across people that think they are...). I've seen exceptional developers who are terrible designers, decent developers who are decent designers, and exception designers who are terrible developers. I'm sure you could find some counter example but I've never come across them. I think it is simply that there are only so many hours in a day. Somebody that spends 40+ hours a week over the course of years honing a particular craft will become more skilled than somebody that splits their time between multiple crafts (especially if they have existing talent in the area). I also disagree that visual design and engineering share many of the same principles. Engineering is about making things work, visual design is about creating an emotional connection. There are no formulas or rules that can be systematically applied to make a product feel right. People that think they are similar probably have never had the pleasure of working with a top visual designer.
  - fractallyte 12y ago
    However, when people pigeonhole themselves, they are actively denying themselves the capability to become something more. And this is a problem worth commenting about...
    - bunkat 12y ago
      You call it pigeonhole but a lot of people call it specialization. Some trades require it, others don't. I don't think you can generalize it and call it a problem. It's almost like expecting an expert plumber to wire up your 20 story condo building. Sure you can find a handyman that can do plumbing and electrical, but for your 20 story condo building you are going to call in people that specialize in electrical. And that's okay.
pothibo 12y ago
Design is just a part of a product. If this is your first product that you built from the ground up, then pat yourself on the back. Great design is such a deep field. Your article seems to mention design as aesthetic. It's certainly a part of it but it's not the biggest. Design is choice. Everything in your screenshot are choices that you took, explicitly or implicitly. Looking at your website (aurous.me), I see that what you present is quite far from the screenshot. Not in term of aesthetic but in term of design choices. You seem to add a lot of popup. Why did you add those? Can't you have only 1 step, like you show? You don't need to fit every use case. Restrictive path is better and it's been proven times and times again. You have a table with many columns. Are those necessary? If you focus on listening music, I don't think knowing the date added, length of the song or the user means a lot. Here's a few suggestions that are design-focus: - For every song in the playlist, a suggestion to replace it. Often I check the upcoming song and know right there I'm not in the mood for some song that are upcoming. Being able to swap with a suggestion would keep the flow of the song and your app would do the heavy lifting of suggesting before I realize I want to change the song - Is your search a main feature? Then it shouldn't be a popup always there, ready for someone to input data.
- codeusasoft 12y ago
  Hey thanks for the reply. The reason for many popups is for multi taskers, the ability to copy and paste links into a playlist builder that is its own windows without interrupting the flow of playing songs currently was the main reason for this. Also the same thing for importing, separating sub features from the main application as utility widgets. As for the columns here is the reasoning >Date added Playlist subscriptions are coming, so knowing when a song was added to a playlist can help you know how current that version might be; bands or artist can re-release mastered versions of older songs. So its important to know when the playlist was last changed for that song. >length You can sort it from shortest to highest, allowing it to play in that order >user Soon you'll be able to login on your own account or subscribe from others, people will be able to fork other peoples playlist to edit them, its mainly just for credit so you know who put effort into building a nice playlist. I do agree for searching though, I will refine it to be on main display not as a popup and replace the main table where loaded playlist are. As for suggestions, when out of focus the app will display a popup showing you whats next, should I add this feature to that popup?

24 points by codeusasoft 12y ago

V-2 12y ago

Instructive, but the design of the website itself is not that great - eg. FAQ link takes you nowhere. Just by reading what's on the site I'm not 100% sure what the thing does - is it like Spotify and Grooveshark? I'd like to have a more unambiguous idea of what I would be installing :)

codeusasoft 12y ago
I've fixed that issue. https://aurous.me/faq/ https://aurous.me/faq/
- comex 12y ago
  Just FYI, there are a multitude of grammar errors in that FAQ; get it edited to avoid leaving a bad impression. :)
- V-2 12y ago
  Indeed :) Thanks.

gdrulia 12y ago

Design is complicated and very much like taste - subjective. Of course there are guidelines of what goes together and what not. Overall it is nice to see transition between the different stages of the product. As per product itself, I assume it is very much alike tomahawk, is that right? It would be nice to have well designed tomahawk type of product which would work fast and be easy to use, so keep up. Want to notice that I've tried to download application, but windows "SmartScreen" tells me that app is from Unknown Publisher and strongly encourages NOT to install. I assume this will prevent most windows users from installing this application.

aikah 12y ago
> Design is complicated and very much like taste - subjective. The problem is "Design" is a bit like UX/UI ,it doesnt really mean anything concrete,but some vague thought process to create a product. Usability is not subjective,that's why I prefer that word. Usability is a hard science,there are rules,just like in programming. You want a product to be smart,to facilitate whatever your user is trying to do,to make simple what might sound complex,but you also want to get user's feeback because they'll always try to use your app in unexpected ways. I think that field could benificiate from all these machine learning experts.Imagine apps that really adapt to their users,trying to learn patterns,adapting the UI depending on usage etc ... I'm not aware of the researches in that field,but it could be the next big thing in usability.
bluthru 12y ago
>Design is complicated and very much like taste - subjective. Aesthetics are subjective. Design is not. Design can contain aesthetics, which complicates things. Just because something is difficult to measure doesn't mean that it can't be measured. A design exists to solve a problem. How well it solves problems is not subjective. The priorities might be subjective, but how well it fulfills its goals is not subjective.
- jrochkind1 12y ago
  > How well it solves problems is not subjective. It may very well solve the problem better for some people than others. Which is one definition of 'subjective'. You can decide you want to target some types or groups of people and not others, for commercial or other reasons. Even "most people" is some people and not others, and is a choice.
  - bluthru 12y ago
    >It may very well solve the problem better for some people than others. Which is one definition of 'subjective'. That's like saying a hammer's effectiveness is subjective because it doesn't work well with screws.

no_future 12y ago

>Realizing you’re a software developer and not a designer I hate when people pigeonhole themselves by giving themselves and others labels like this. What's stopping someone from being both a great designer and a great software developer? Visual/UX design is actually very similar in its principles to software and engineering type of design in my opinion.

bunkat 12y ago
While there might not be anything stopping somebody from being both a great developer and great designer, I've never come across somebody that is (though I've come across people that think they are...). I've seen exceptional developers who are terrible designers, decent developers who are decent designers, and exception designers who are terrible developers. I'm sure you could find some counter example but I've never come across them. I think it is simply that there are only so many hours in a day. Somebody that spends 40+ hours a week over the course of years honing a particular craft will become more skilled than somebody that splits their time between multiple crafts (especially if they have existing talent in the area). I also disagree that visual design and engineering share many of the same principles. Engineering is about making things work, visual design is about creating an emotional connection. There are no formulas or rules that can be systematically applied to make a product feel right. People that think they are similar probably have never had the pleasure of working with a top visual designer.
- fractallyte 12y ago
  However, when people pigeonhole themselves, they are actively denying themselves the capability to become something more. And this is a problem worth commenting about...
  - bunkat 12y ago
    You call it pigeonhole but a lot of people call it specialization. Some trades require it, others don't. I don't think you can generalize it and call it a problem. It's almost like expecting an expert plumber to wire up your 20 story condo building. Sure you can find a handyman that can do plumbing and electrical, but for your 20 story condo building you are going to call in people that specialize in electrical. And that's okay.

pothibo 12y ago

Design is just a part of a product. If this is your first product that you built from the ground up, then pat yourself on the back. Great design is such a deep field. Your article seems to mention design as aesthetic. It's certainly a part of it but it's not the biggest. Design is choice. Everything in your screenshot are choices that you took, explicitly or implicitly. Looking at your website (aurous.me), I see that what you present is quite far from the screenshot. Not in term of aesthetic but in term of design choices. You seem to add a lot of popup. Why did you add those? Can't you have only 1 step, like you show? You don't need to fit every use case. Restrictive path is better and it's been proven times and times again. You have a table with many columns. Are those necessary? If you focus on listening music, I don't think knowing the date added, length of the song or the user means a lot. Here's a few suggestions that are design-focus: - For every song in the playlist, a suggestion to replace it. Often I check the upcoming song and know right there I'm not in the mood for some song that are upcoming. Being able to swap with a suggestion would keep the flow of the song and your app would do the heavy lifting of suggesting before I realize I want to change the song - Is your search a main feature? Then it shouldn't be a popup always there, ready for someone to input data.

codeusasoft 12y ago
Hey thanks for the reply. The reason for many popups is for multi taskers, the ability to copy and paste links into a playlist builder that is its own windows without interrupting the flow of playing songs currently was the main reason for this. Also the same thing for importing, separating sub features from the main application as utility widgets. As for the columns here is the reasoning >Date added Playlist subscriptions are coming, so knowing when a song was added to a playlist can help you know how current that version might be; bands or artist can re-release mastered versions of older songs. So its important to know when the playlist was last changed for that song. >length You can sort it from shortest to highest, allowing it to play in that order >user Soon you'll be able to login on your own account or subscribe from others, people will be able to fork other peoples playlist to edit them, its mainly just for credit so you know who put effort into building a nice playlist. I do agree for searching though, I will refine it to be on main display not as a popup and replace the main table where loaded playlist are. As for suggestions, when out of focus the app will display a popup showing you whats next, should I add this feature to that popup?