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Copying is the way design works (2020)

matthewstrom.com

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Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#141

Post by carlmr »

moomoo11 wrote: post #101
rachofsunshine wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a concrete example, the idea of a mouse was once counterintuitive to users because they'd never seen one before. Windows included Solitaire with the OS in part to introduce ideas like "click" or "click and drag" to users that were unfamiliar with GUIs, by linking them to physical concepts users did understand ("oh, I have a physical card, I can grab it and move it around, that makes sense!").

Wow that’s cool. I remember my dad was addicted to solitaire lol

He was playing the tutorial all along.

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#142

Post by carlmr »

nox101 wrote: post #139
guappa wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a full time design team where I work. The menu items got decided before they all got hired. What they do is to move them around every few months, change the colours, design our application with a mobile layout, despite 99% of our users being on desktop computers…

they need to be punched in the face! Designers that change up the UI just to have something to do drive me nuts! And, now it's life threatening because cars now get updates every ~12 months where some designers have decided how to use the car changes. So, things you got used to suddenly change and you have to figure them out WHILE YOU'RE DRIVING! I hope someone manages to sue over these changes when someone inevitabl…

I still think cars need to be controlled through hardware knobs. At least all the normal car functions.

GPS and AndroidAuto/Apple CarPlay interaction should be the one exception, but even here you need a volume knob at least, so that if the volume is suddenly too high you can react with muscle memory.

Because surprisingly high volume can distract you enough to crash.

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#143

Post by surfingdino »

__mharrison__ wrote: post #127
surfingdino wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped self-publishing my books, because as soon as I offered PDFs to those who purchased my paper books the sales of printed copies tanked. Then nobody wanted to pay for PDFs and Amazon screwed my KDP sales (banned my book). The readers felt entitled to free copies and free consultation on the subject of the book. It's really depressing how entitled people feel to other people's creative output or knowledge.

Did you just stop publishing altogether?

Yes. I do not need another book as a CV, which is currently the most viable business model for authors of non-fiction.

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#144

Post by jrflowers »

caseyohara wrote: post #125
ozim wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not only that. For example wannabe EDM DJs think they have to be creative and find tracks that no one ever heard to be edgy or whatever… most of people pay for having cookie cutter songs played so they can dance and have a good experience and they don’t want to be surprised on EDM event - well there are big names that can do whatever they want of course but that is different expectation. The same with software…

Wow, this couldn't be further from the truth. It might be true for DJs playing "main stage" style EDM (poppy mainstream music) but for most electronic subgenres – especially techno – the crowd absolutely expects the DJ to be a superb crate digger and pull out new and deep tracks they've never heard before. No one goes to a techno club to hear rinsed tracks; they want the DJ to show them music they've never heard befo…

Most DJs do not make their livings at techno clubs. The majority are hired to play bars and events that do not cater to particularly discerning audiences.

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#145

Post by strogonoff »

karaterobot wrote: post #18

> As a designer, I feel the need to be original. If you’re a designer, or even if you’re just interested in design, you probably feel the need to be original, too. I've been a professional designer since 2006, and I got over that thinking pretty quickly. A designer trying to be strikingly original is rarely acting in service of the design. If you want to be strikingly original, you probably want to be an artist inste…

The interesting thing about design is that once you combine the good parts from preexisting approaches (not least because those are patterns familiar to users already), relevant first principles (visual hierarchy, legibility), forward thinking (sustainable architecture with flexibility in the right places), and the context of your specific circumstances and goals, you most likely will end up with something sufficiently original without making an extra effort in that direction—and, rather than being an artist’s whim, it would be true beauty arising from function.

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#146

Post by albumen »

lolinder wrote: post #89
Hitton wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile Steve Jobs: "We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

Clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a6jeZ7m0ycw

top comment: "The credit should be given to poet T S Eliot (1920): “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn.”

and its reply: "So really it has nothing to do with stealing whatsoever"

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#147

Post by xinayder »

m12k wrote: post #51
karaterobot wrote: post #18

> As a designer, I feel the need to be original. If you’re a designer, or even if you’re just interested in design, you probably feel the need to be original, too. I've been a professional designer since 2006, and I got over that thinking pretty quickly. A designer trying to be strikingly original is rarely acting in service of the design. If you want to be strikingly original, you probably want to be an artist inste…

Also, one of the most important UX principles is for things to work the way the user expects. And unless you are the market leader, those expectations are mostly built based on all the other designs that your users interact with, rather than yours. So to the extent that originality means diverging from those expectations that are built elsewhere, it is actively doing your users a disservice, by not letting them lever…

While it makes sense, it really isn't the case if the market leaders have shitty design principles.

Apple stopped bundling an iPhone charger on recent models. Samsung did the same, but realized the backlash was enormous, and offered the charger for free (instead of being an additional purchase) if you bought a recent model.

Same with headphone jack, although it was received much more negatively and I'm pretty sure Samsung didn't give a damn about most of its users complaining they now had to buy new headphones (they mitigated this a bit by offering a USB-C headphone on their flagship devices for a while) to listen to music in their devices.

It's an outdated line of thought to think you need your designs to feel familiar to the user, even if the competitors have dark or annoying design patterns, rather than convenient. The average user is no longer a tech illiterate person. We should stop assuming common things like opting out of marketing/AI data training should be left for advanced users only and make it available for everyone, with ease.

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#148

Post by myworkinisgood »

Side note: This is why I feel Stallman is more of a visionary and would have much more lasting impact than Jobs had (character flaws of both people not withstanding). Jobs stole and kept market dominance to keep the loot for himself. In medieval time, Jobs would be a raider. Stallman empowered the people and let them have fruits of their own labor.

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#149

Post by DrScientist »

carlmr wrote: post #136
burningChrome wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When parallax scrolling was cool and different, I designed an architecture site for a local architect using the effect. It was very similar to this site where you had jarring transitions, background changes and images moving at different speeds. https://doubble.group/sg/ The end result was very similar to site above and we all got a lot of positive feedback when their current clients saw it because they were blown aw…

>When parallax scrolling was cool and different, I designed an architecture site for a local architect using the effect. A friend of mine designed such a site with his web design company. I instantly thought, amazing but horrendous. On that note, why is Apple still successful with this? Everything is moving on their website.

> On that note, why is Apple still successful with this? Everything is moving on their website.

Everything apart from the navigation bar at the top - which is well organised and static ( over-time ).

ie in terms of the functional 'find-stuff' part of the site - it's all there in the top few pixels(1), and the sub menus. The rest is entertainment.

(1) There is also a footer at the bottom of the scroll - with a whole host of simple links - if you get that far and haven't found what you are looking for.

Re: Copying is the way design works (2020)

#150

Post by f1shy »

burningChrome wrote: post #33
karaterobot wrote: post #18

> As a designer, I feel the need to be original. If you’re a designer, or even if you’re just interested in design, you probably feel the need to be original, too. I've been a professional designer since 2006, and I got over that thinking pretty quickly. A designer trying to be strikingly original is rarely acting in service of the design. If you want to be strikingly original, you probably want to be an artist inste…

This. I was a UI/UX guy for about 5 years and worked for a company that pumped out thousands of sites a year. A bunch of their designs won awards and I saw their model and thought I could do that, it seemed easy. The hitch was that I was going to design really cool sites, with all kinds of animations, huge text, have really cool navigation menus, etc. In short, I had a very romantic idea that I would dictate some inc…

In UI you want to be anything but original. It should be as “the same” as possible.
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