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Fog Creek releases WebPutty

webputty.net

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Re: Fog Creek releases WebPutty

#22

Post by guywithabike »

sfk wrote: post #20

Could someone explain why most recent websites look as if the members of the target audience are five-year old children? This is not a troll - I'm honestly wondering if anyone actually likes such a "design".

Can you explain why you think the design targets "five-year old children"? All you did was make a reductive, flippant accusation without backing it up at all.

Re: Fog Creek releases WebPutty

#25

Post by blhack »

sfk wrote: post #20

Could someone explain why most recent websites look as if the members of the target audience are five-year old children? This is not a troll - I'm honestly wondering if anyone actually likes such a "design".

Because childrens' toys are highly functional. You've got building blocks with letters on them. They do exactly 1 thing, and they do that 1 thing very, very, very well.

Or maybe you have a board with some buttons on it. The one with a picture of a cow makes a cow noise. The pig makes a pig noise, etc.

Turns out this is also really good design practice. For a long time, when the web was new, having lots of "neat stuff" meant that you knew how to make neat stuff, which meant that you were "professional".

As this "neat stuff" became more accessible, it started having the opposite affect.

The transition you've seen happen in web is the same one that you saw happen in print. Things start off "fancy", but as "fancy" becomes easily attainable, it starts to look cheap.

You may be interested in this article: http://lesswrong.com/lw/154/why_real_men_wear_pink/

"Why Real Men Wear Pink"

Re: Fog Creek releases WebPutty

#27

Post by tghw »

swah wrote: post #26
scotto wrote: post #21

I really like this idea and design. In particular the "Tour" is great! I think I will get real use from this service.

I wonder if they used that tour making library posted here the other day...

Yup, we used the Guiders library posted by the Optimizely guys: https://github.com/jeff-optimizely/Guiders-JS

Re: Fog Creek releases WebPutty

#28

Post by SamReidHughes »

guywithabike wrote: post #22
sfk wrote: post #20

Could someone explain why most recent websites look as if the members of the target audience are five-year old children? This is not a troll - I'm honestly wondering if anyone actually likes such a "design".

Can you explain why you think the design targets "five-year old children"? All you did was make a reductive, flippant accusation without backing it up at all.

What do you expect, some kind of point-by-pint list of how the design targets children? Why don't you think of one yourself?

Can't see how it could be regarded in such a light? Too bad.

Re: Fog Creek releases WebPutty

#29

Post by tghw »

dmbass wrote: post #2

Can someone explain why they would choose a name like Putty which is already a well established and completely different software?

Mostly because good names are hard to come by, and WebPutty (if you unstick your brain from PuTTY) is a pretty decent name.

We would have loved to incorporate transmogrifier into the name, but that's hard to type and spell.

Re: Fog Creek releases WebPutty

#30

Post by jrockway »

sfk wrote: post #20

Could someone explain why most recent websites look as if the members of the target audience are five-year old children? This is not a troll - I'm honestly wondering if anyone actually likes such a "design".

Just to spite you. The world is out to get you specifically, and this is the first phase of that operation.
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