You're viewing all posts tagged with design

John C. Abell, referring to the debate over Flash on the iPhone/iPad, notes:

[Flash is] the most over-rated and overused crutch for decent design.

And in one phrase, he has entirely summed up my feelings regarding Flash, both as a technology and as a tool for design.

While good design can be (and occasionally is) done using Flash, all too often something is made all whiz-bang-whirry, fly around the screen and do crazy shit-like just because it can. And this doesn’t make the interface more usable, and most definitely doesn’t make it better designed.

Flash just helps to ensure the design will be noticed1. And good design shouldn’t be noticed, nor should it get in the way of the user. As Jared Spool remarks:

Good design, when it’s done well, becomes invisible. It’s only when it’s done poorly that we notice it.

And boy do I notice a lot of Flash out there.

  1. I’m sure this point has been made before, but isn’t the name Flash itself so apropos? Technically it’s a contraction of FutureSplash, the company that originally created the technology. But anymore, all I see is the derisive meaning of the word… ↩
“
Clients are the difference between design and art.
Michael Bierut
“You are no longer a web designer. You are now a mouse cursor inside a graphics program which the client can control by speaking, emailing, and instant messaging.” clientsfromhell: How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell - The Oatmeal

“You are no longer a web designer. You are now a mouse cursor inside a graphics program which the client can control by speaking, emailing, and instant messaging.”

clientsfromhell:

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell - The Oatmeal

(this post was reblogged from clientsfromhell)
“
Ultimately, I figure with the money I save on mortgage, I can rent out the Holiday Inn if I want to have a huge party.

Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company on the misplaced priorities of people who own huge houses.

(via 37signals)