
Show HN: Interface Lovers – Interviews with designers - viiralvx
https://interfacelovers.com
======
tsunamifury
Whats so thoroughly disappoints me about the design community is that so few
of them are actual disruptors. Browsing through these interviews, the
questions are almost entirely about their taste --a very superficial
understanding of design. And unsurprisingly, their tastes almost always have
the minimal Japanese aesthetic, and a lot of talk about 'simplicity'.

As part of my job I have the pleasure of occasionally working with some of the
more recognized product designers in the world, and very few of them are
anything other than "basic" in their public taste profile. The majority of
their concentration is on market psychology, shifting trends in technology
enabling new designs to be possible, and the really hard problems of global
design. They tend to have out there hobbies focused around building things and
their work process is not a endless flow of whitespace and pretty objects.

All this to say -- I am disappointed that the design community has gotten
sucked into designing itself more than designing for others -- a process I
know is a lot messier than this website shows.

~~~
onli
It's also the similarities in the people. And what did stand out to me: All of
them use MacOS, only one had no iPhone. I don't think that is a statement to
the quality of the products, I see something else there - a kind of groupthink
and tribal behaviour, the same mechanism that leads to all of them "liking"
minimal Japanese aesthetic and simplicity.

I think it is a bad sign. If people in a field define themself over
superficial stuff like that, are they qualified to judge the quality of their
work? Or will they also judge them by their superficial standards, how it
looks and whether it follows the newest fad? Based on how often redesigns go
wrong I fear it is often the latter.

~~~
ryanSrich
The design industry is absolutely toxic. It's dripping with this type of
stuff. Trends and herd mentality rules everything around designers. It's why I
started to move outside of design and into product. There's absolutely no room
in the design industry for critical thought or dissenting opinion. It's so
wrapped up into itself that any attempts at questioning the status quo are
quickly thrown out as hate. I firmly believe that the design industry is a
great way to see the deterioration of society at large.

~~~
RickS
Meh. It's toxic in the way development is toxic. There's a ~5% group of
pragmatic systems thinkers, and a long tail of dudes on craigslist building
vuln heavy PHP crapware for 25/hr.

But everything in the world is like that! Pizza, burritos, laptops, blue
jeans, 3d printers.... it's just the way the math of life works out. Most
ponies aren't pegasus. I don't think it's representative of the _decline_ of
society, I think it's representative of the _distribution_ of society. And
that's an impractical thing to get worked up about.

I'll admit, it's a little lonely though, having the groups that are best
qualified to talk about the problems you like, but they're totally
disinterested/distracted.

~~~
whytaka
I think with graphic design becoming a more common skill, the industry's
culture has indeed gotten worse. People are more desperate for work and
conform to an image and language.

~~~
Mendenhall
Yea many take their "cue" from a few popular designers and sort of use it to
justify their design decisions. Often I feel its newer designers who may not
feel comfortable taking a more assertive role in the process. I also notice
the same sort of trend in concept art where many look like they use the same
"photoshop" technique.

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whytaka
Designers today laud UX but make the most inaccessible, superflous, gimmicky,
unreadable, and yet some how still bland, designs. Minimalism without any of
the benefits. Overly garnished designs without any real creativity. Design
problems of the flat screen are mostly solved; at this point, they are just
creating work for themselves. I can't blame them for that.

~~~
fiatjaf
Some designs are very good. Normally the ones that go unnoticed.

------
intoverflow2
Same old bunch of faces talking about the same old bunch of stuff.

Forever underwhelmed with design writing in the digital space.

~~~
JusticeJuice
Want an actually fascinating read about the future of interface design? Read
the best interface is no interface, by Golden Krishna. It's so good.

------
kevinmannix
Pretty cool! As a developer who's currently quite lacking in design
capabilities, it's nice to hear about the more product-focused side of things.
Will definitely be following this site & the interviewees on Twitter.

------
shady-lady
I ended clicking through to Stripes homepage(as it was mentioned in an
interview under 'What pieces of work are you most proud of?').

I'm not a fan of partial images being shown at default browser zoom - seems
too inexact compared to rest of Stripe site. Had to zoom out to 80% to have
all device images shown.

[http://imgur.com/a/pqFVa](http://imgur.com/a/pqFVa)

album showing

1) stripe homepage at browser zoom 100%
([http://imgur.com/IhhWWLf](http://imgur.com/IhhWWLf))

2) stripe homepage at browser zoom 80%
([http://imgur.com/Jq6a8fI](http://imgur.com/Jq6a8fI))

3) all other content on page seems centered as normal.
([http://imgur.com/KIZSUuL](http://imgur.com/KIZSUuL))

[Not sure if there's a handier way/program to include some kind of measurement
ruler on images.]

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artur_makly
Product Designer here. Agreed that more designers should make full hearted
attempts at innovating in Product vs dressings.

We are out there though few.

My last major attempt [1] was to disrupt the desogn process itself, especially
in the consumption of lifestyle products.

[1] [http://JuicyCanvas.com](http://JuicyCanvas.com)

~~~
cryodesign
Your link returns a 403, i.e. can't access it.

~~~
artur_makly
so strange. its up for me.

[http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/juicycanvas.com](http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/juicycanvas.com)

[https://www.browserstack.com/screenshots/293ae9eaa0f9d2a3ded...](https://www.browserstack.com/screenshots/293ae9eaa0f9d2a3ded6c4d46c2809df35d41f44)

can u try another browser?

are u attempting access via https?

~~~
cryodesign
Yes, I'm using the HTTPS Everywhere extension for Chrome and I'm guessing a
lot of HN users might as well.

I'll try another browser, but I suggest to enable HTTPS for your site.

~~~
artur_makly
fixed thanks for catching that!

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searchfaster
As a developer who just spent the last night building a visualization tool
analyzing reddit data, totally appreciate the value of a good designer.

It is very hard to balance 'simplicity', 'usability' and 'features'.

I had to cut short many features and options because the interface was getting
too complex.

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dorianm
Would be nice to polish the spacings
[http://imgur.com/a/So2Uh](http://imgur.com/a/So2Uh)

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fiatjaf
So all designers use a Mac and an iPhone?

