Replying to the intro topic instead of to the actual topic: “light-contrast, minimalist elegance” is exactly what the lesserwrong interface is not.
One reason sites have this problem is that designers want to be Doing Something. Nobody gets a promotion based on a web interface that is good because it’s easy to ignore. Nobody gets the satisfaction from making a boring interface as they do from making an exciting one, and nobody gets the praise. Because nobody wants to not be noticed, even if the best interface is one that doesn’t have to be noticed.
Nobody gets the satisfaction from making a boring interface as they do from making an exciting one
I beg to differ!
I make absolutely no claims about the extent to which I’ve succeeded in this with any of the things I’ve made, but my goal is, and has always been, to create what Mark Weiser called “calm technology”. Weiser said:
The most profound technologies are those that disappear.
If you don’t notice a UI, but simply do what you want to do, and barely (if ever) think of using a tool rather than doing a task—that is the ideal.
And while this may not be at all the dominant trend in the industry, I am by no means alone in my views. Some designers get great satisfaction out of creating things that are (mostly) unnoticed!
Following this xkcd, it seems natural that lots of designers (most designers?) “get great satisfaction out of creating things that are (mostly) unnoticed” (or else these designers aren’t satisfied with their jobs). In a world where so much *is* designed, it would be exhausting to notice all the details.
Replying to the intro topic instead of to the actual topic: “light-contrast, minimalist elegance” is exactly what the lesserwrong interface is not.
One reason sites have this problem is that designers want to be Doing Something. Nobody gets a promotion based on a web interface that is good because it’s easy to ignore. Nobody gets the satisfaction from making a boring interface as they do from making an exciting one, and nobody gets the praise. Because nobody wants to not be noticed, even if the best interface is one that doesn’t have to be noticed.
I beg to differ!
I make absolutely no claims about the extent to which I’ve succeeded in this with any of the things I’ve made, but my goal is, and has always been, to create what Mark Weiser called “calm technology”. Weiser said:
If you don’t notice a UI, but simply do what you want to do, and barely (if ever) think of using a tool rather than doing a task—that is the ideal.
And while this may not be at all the dominant trend in the industry, I am by no means alone in my views. Some designers get great satisfaction out of creating things that are (mostly) unnoticed!
Following this xkcd, it seems natural that lots of designers (most designers?) “get great satisfaction out of creating things that are (mostly) unnoticed” (or else these designers aren’t satisfied with their jobs). In a world where so much *is* designed, it would be exhausting to notice all the details.