The Reemergence of Style in Software • Hacker News Board

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#31

Post by pjc50 » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:47 PM UTC

prox wrote: post #18

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #9

> Modern software’s humdrum lack of identity has resulted in users craving more interesting, opinionated tools, tools that feel like us — or a better, more interesting, wackier version of us. The above is the kind of sentence that you'll see in almost any fashion or arts magazine. Pretty fluffy stuff. Not really the kind of thing we're used to, in the engineering community. That said, I firmly believe that there's al…

I am going to make a claim as someone who works in both the crossroad of devwork and design that there is not one piece of software that caters truly for the artist. Every piece of software for artists / designers is not intuitive. It’s sliders, knobs, modals and panels. Programmers making design software is Not A Good Idea. The way forward is something like ProCreate, so just the software and the pen, and maybe more…

It's been a long time since the unique and slightly bizarre Kai's Power Tools: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai%27s_Power_Tools

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#32

Post by pjc50 » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:49 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #27

I think this is an undergrad paper published on a blog. It’s hard to see if this article is really making a legit point, from a confusing typos early (swapping “form” and “function”, or claiming beige was used in software, when all displays were monochrome back then) to pulling out random historical artifacts apparently without understanding them (the Star’s portrait display was not “distinct”; on the contrary the sw…

The claim was that beige was the color of hardware (accompanied by a link discussing this claim). Portrait displays have never been very common (TVs were always landscape). This feels like a particularly picky bit of nitpicking.

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#33

Post by amelius » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 3:28 PM UTC

Tade0 wrote: post #22

Going off on a tangent here but I clicked the link explaining why tower PCs used to be beige and it made me realize that my career didn't overlap with the era of cubicles - I entered the job market at a time when the norm was an open space plan. I wonder if I would hate the cubicle as much as I hate open space offices? Can anyone who's witnessed this transition weigh in?

Cubicles were not that great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtTUsOKjWyQ

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#34

Post by cblconfederate » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 3:35 PM UTC

> These aesthetics were both compelling and immediately understandable to newcomers

I liked skeuomorphic and i think most people find it comfortable because it s familiar. What followed that seems (from the user perspective) like a horde of conceited designers who think that the user should suffer for their superior designs. Wasting people's time trying to find where the button is, if it's pressed , or what it means, is not cool. Bicycles for the mind should make us go faster. I don't see any return of style, i see more of the same inanity, like e.g. twitter's latest redesign

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#35

Post by agumonkey » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 4:17 PM UTC

andybak wrote: post #14

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #9

> Modern software’s humdrum lack of identity has resulted in users craving more interesting, opinionated tools, tools that feel like us — or a better, more interesting, wackier version of us. The above is the kind of sentence that you'll see in almost any fashion or arts magazine. Pretty fluffy stuff. Not really the kind of thing we're used to, in the engineering community. That said, I firmly believe that there's al…

So I read the first sentence and my immediate reaction was "Well I don't. And I'm not sure anyone has ever expressed that opinion to me" and I stopped reading.

There's a bit of truth. The era of extremely engineered everything gave birth to flat design for instance. I'm not pro skeumorphism but I remember how odd software felt good in a way. As long as it was fun (good boards, useful programs) you ended up liking the quirks.

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#36

Post by agumonkey » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 4:19 PM UTC

cblconfederate wrote: post #34

> These aesthetics were both compelling and immediately understandable to newcomers I liked skeuomorphic and i think most people find it comfortable because it s familiar. What followed that seems (from the user perspective) like a horde of conceited designers who think that the user should suffer for their superior designs. Wasting people's time trying to find where the button is, if it's pressed , or what it means,…

I think skeumorphism is ok as long as it doesn't forget it's software so physical limitations don't have to cripple the application. Best times is when you have a bit of skeumorphism and a bit of software extensibility / genericity.

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#37

Post by sanderjd » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

legutierr wrote: post #11

schleck8 wrote: post #8

I don't want to know how much money was paid for these logos https://future.a16z.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Logo-Tran...

I would barely call them logos. It's like they found the name of the company mentioned in the title of some blog article and just took a screenshot. The new Pinterest logo is downright offensive, given how great the original was.

Yeah the old Pinterest logo is great. The old Spotify logo really isn't. Which is not to say they did a very good job on the new one....

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#38

Post by coldtea » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 4:27 PM UTC

>By designing everything on the screen to be as photorealistic as possible, the software essentially negated needing to define its style or stance — it merely reflected the world outside of it.

Not even close to reality. Aqua, iOS "skeuomorphism" had a very defined and unique style.

It obviously wasn't some photograph of an actual desktop with some folders on top and a garbage can, as this makes it sound (not to mention that even if it was, there are 10000s of ways to have a unique style and stance in a photograph too).

Hell, old "photorealistic" GUIs were even MORE distinct from one another than today, with everybody having their same-looking flat UIs.

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#39

Post by coldtea » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 4:29 PM UTC

andybak wrote: post #14

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #9

> Modern software’s humdrum lack of identity has resulted in users craving more interesting, opinionated tools, tools that feel like us — or a better, more interesting, wackier version of us. The above is the kind of sentence that you'll see in almost any fashion or arts magazine. Pretty fluffy stuff. Not really the kind of thing we're used to, in the engineering community. That said, I firmly believe that there's al…

So I read the first sentence and my immediate reaction was "Well I don't. And I'm not sure anyone has ever expressed that opinion to me" and I stopped reading.

Well, here's that opinion: today's flat UIs all look the same, boring, and bland. I wish there was more quirkiness too. Perhaps not to Kai Power tool's levels, but I enjoy the functional quirkiness of many VST UIs.

Now you can continue reading. Seldom anybody learned much, when they stopped reading at the point they disagreed with.

Re: The Reemergence of Style in Software

#40

Post by JustAnonymous » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 4:44 PM UTC

Modern UI/UX design is mass-produced, homogenized rubbish. The cadres who have plunged us into this abyss of anti-usability can no more be relied upon to undo their mistakes than they could to come up with a usable design to begin with.