

Eye candy is a critical business requirement - replicatorblog
http://www.slideshare.net/stephenpa/eye-candy-is-a-critical-business-requirement

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bkbleikamp
He also wrote an article at A List Apart on the same subject:
<http://www.alistapart.com/articles/indefenseofeyecandy/>

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clemesha
I love the slides comparing the old gas pump to the new one, it really
demonstrates how high-quality appearance brings about feelings of trust.

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plainspace
Great looking presentation. Would have loved to hear it too.

Was the following ever true?

 _...it doesn't matter how pretty your site is or how many "bells and
whistles" you have. While a high-quality site is important, the majority of
people today value usability more than good looks or fanciness._

I firmly believe that if we (the collective we) don't start paying more
attention to aesthetics, we are not going to survive this mess. The human
landscape needs to start looking better. Would you rather have a trailer or
one of these? [http://www.smallhousestyle.com/2007/07/23/the-mill-house-
by-...](http://www.smallhousestyle.com/2007/07/23/the-mill-house-by-
wingardhs/)

I know that not everyone can afford one of these but if there was more desire
for them in the market the prices would come down and possibly be more
competitive with a double wide.

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anamax
BTW - you do realize that that house is okay in a wooded or rural area, but is
a privacy disaster in urban/suburban area. Also, walls aren't just to keep
other people from looking in, it's to keep protect them from seeing you. I'm
glad that my neighbors have opaque walls.

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warfangle
While I agree it wouldn't work in an urban area...

The reason it wouldn't work in most suburban areas is because most people have
these weird ecological disasters they call "lawns." They fret over them. They
urge them to grow, and then mow them down (reminds me of one of my exes..
ha!). And they poison the local water with their fertilizers and pesticides.
If they just grew some natural areas with large flowering shrubs, trees, and
so forth.. having a house with windows wouldn't be such a problem.

The problem is everyone wants to pretend they're in a house out in the
country, with rolling fields. Unfortunately, what they get are facsimiles of
rolling fields; facsimiles of forests and streams. And day after day they
trundle on, with their houses that only face forward (you don't see windows on
the sides of houses in the 'burbs... do you? I haven't ever), like blinders to
the reality of the fakeness they live in.

Of course, I live in post-industrial bushwick, so I can't really say my
surroundings are more natural. But at least they aren't a caricature...

Besides, trailers/double-wides are typically in more rural areas, like the
outer rims of suburbia.

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anamax
> The reason it wouldn't work in most suburban areas is because most people
> have these weird ecological disasters they call "lawns."

Lawns have nothing to do with their privacy failures in a urban/suburban area.

> If they just grew some natural areas with large flowering shrubs, trees,

You've got a very unnatural view of "natural area". With a few exceptions, the
natural growth isn't nearly as dense as you suggest. (I now know that you
haven't been to most of the US, Australia, Africa.)

> you don't see windows on the sides of houses in the 'burbs... do you? I
> haven't ever

I'm looking out one. In fact, side windows are actually almost universal.
There are a couple of recent styles that don't have them (because they're
maximizing ground use) but they're the exception even in new construction in
the US.

> Besides, trailers/double-wides are typically in more rural areas, like the
> outer rims of suburbia.

Not really - I suspect that a majority are in parks and those aren't really
"outer rims" of suburbia. (Take San Jose and Sunnyvale CA.)

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warfangle
Sorry, I should have made the disclaimer that I'm basing that on my
experiences growing up in central North Carolina. I've been an east coaster
for life, though I have family out there on the left coast now. Back home,
azaleas and tall evergreen shrubs could provide plenty of privacy between
houses. The woods were typically pine, with hardwoods coming in below that,
and holly, azaleas and so forth beneath. We had large "natural areas" (by
which I mean my dad had planted bushes and such, and just let them grow wild)
which didn't look that messy, and were absolutely gorgeous when the azaleas
were in bloom.

I guess if you're living out in the desert you've got to worry about not
having enough ground cover. But then again, you chose to live in the desert ;)

Funny, almost none of the houses built in my father's neighborhood circa '92
have windows on the side. And they have fairly large yards.

Really? You're basing the "majority of parks" on some small observations about
cali? Have you ever driven through georgia, alabama, ohio, north/south
carolina, florida, etc?

California is not representative of the US - especially "middle america."

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anamax
> You're basing the "majority of parks" on some small observations about cali?

Not at all. I just thought that the Silicon Valley counter-examples were
interesting. Most people don't know how common trailer parks are.

> Have you ever driven through georgia, alabama, ohio, north/south carolina,
> florida, etc?

I haven't driven through the carolinas or georgia, but the rest, yes. I've
lived in the midwest, was born in the "mid central", and have driven through
all that plus most of the west and part of the northeast.

I do apologize for not having a current count on the number of my relatives
who currently live in "manufactured housing", but feel free to assume what
ever you'd like from the fact that the number in the past is >0.

I'm still waiting for any support for the assertion that ugly houses are
harmful to survival.

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warfangle
Well, they're certainly a detriment psychologically. How can something ugly be
healthy?

Here you go.

[http://www.amazon.com/Aesthetics-Well-Being-Health-
Architect...](http://www.amazon.com/Aesthetics-Well-Being-Health-Architecture-
Environmental/dp/0754618560)

(Review was one of the first results on Google for "environmental aesthetics
affecting health"... Did you research this question before you posed it?)

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anamax
Yes, I did research it. I found the arguments in favor to be lame, self-
serving, etc.

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Sam_Odio
Does anyone have audio from this presentation?

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10ren
I personally have an affective responsive to towards orthogonal design,
meaning that if A does this, and B does that, then if I do A and B together,
then I get both their effects. I get a great deal of pleasure from products
that do this (many don't). I think it's an engineering thing - most people
don't care.

This could contribute to the chasm between
"features,reliable,usable,convenient" and "pleasurable,meaningful", if the
organization is run by people who already get the latter from the former.

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anamax
The dominant "engineering thing" is tradeoffs, like "good, fast, cheap, pick
two".

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10ren
The Four Laws of Perception: similarity, proximity, closure and continuation.

[http://books.google.com/books?id=gnsOAAAAQAAJ&lpg=PA43&#...</a>

