

Jason Fried Rants about Modern Web Design - danmaz74
http://tech.co/jason-fried-design-2013-12

======
ColinWright
Interesting to compare that with the rather controversial comment I made some
time ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5797626](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5797626)

In that I said:

    
    
        I'm probably in a minority here, and I'm speaking
        purely for myself, and it's a strictly personal
        view, but ...
    
        I hate it.
    
        I'm sure it's technically very clean, elegant, and
        "nice", but more and more as I look at the "gorgeous"
        and "beautifully designed" sites pointed to from HN,
        I just feel like my face is being pushed through mush.
    
        I know that sounds entirely negative, and I'm sorry
        about that, but the obsession with blended buttons
        and perfect pastels and crafted corners and so on
        just makes the whole thing feel wishy washy.
    

I said something similar here[0]:

    
    
        There's a mis-match between the terms "well-designed"
        and "looks beautiful." I find many sites that look
        gorgeous, but I can't find what I want, and can't make
        them do what I need. So I leave. They fail the basic
        requirement that they meet the needs of me, a potential
        customer.
    
        But I'm also finding increasingly that I feel like my
        face is being pushed through mush. Everything seems soft,
        or rounded, or pastel, or otherwise character-free. This
        button is blended, that panel is graduated. It's all free
        of any kind of personality.
    

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3609634](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3609634)

Probably I'm wrong, but it feels a bit like Mr Fried is saying something
similar, although probably better phrased, and with better credentials.

~~~
cynusx
Seems to me that you're complaining about nicely visual laid out websites with
poor usability. I am not so sure that Fried is complaining about this. To me
it seemed more that in a world full of sleek sites he prefers fake
amateurism.. pretty much like how people like to wear retro clothes and be
hipster.

~~~
ColinWright
I'm not just complaining about poor usability, I'm complaining about how
everything is "gorgeous" and "blended" and "just so". There seems to be no
edge, no clarity - it's all "just so" and "swoosh."

Problem is, I don't have the language to make it clear what I mean, and if you
don't see it, I can't help you to do so. So many web designers think it looks
lovely, so that's what we get. I think it all looks "meh", but you know, what
do I know, I'm not a designer.

------
shin_lao
_Also, some of the best buildings in the world are made by people who aren’t
architects._

What? Which building? If you manage to "make" a building, aren't you an
architect by definition?

~~~
allard
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular_architecture](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular_architecture)

~~~
shin_lao
Do you consider these buildings to be "the best in the world"?

~~~
owenjones
I think the point is sometimes architects eschew local traditions or materials
to make a building to their aesthetic standards, often to the detriment of the
buildings inhabitants.

These houses might not be "the best" (how would you even classify that?) but
they are "evolved" to be comfortable and efficient in the areas in which you'd
find them.

Read A Place of My Own by Michael Pollan for an exploration of this very
topic.

