> If there were some navigation metadata in there, I could theme the browser to show that as a viewport at the top. I could change the aesthetics to the user's preference.
This is the most design-ignorant post I've seen on HN in a long time, and I think this quote really highlights what's wrong with it. No, not all pages have navigation that can be put in some One True Hierarchy metadata style. To take five high-volume sites as example: Facebook, Bank of America, Google Search, Google Docs, and Google Maps all have fundamentally different usage patterns that simply would not work if styled in remotely the same way.
Yes, if all pages were just essays with occasional links (as they were in the 90's), then pages w/o site-provided CSS would be great and you could use user styles for all your customization (FYI, feel free to click View > Page Style > No Style in your menu bar to do this for yourself). Cool, but it's 2014 now, and people expect their websites to be native-competitive applications that allow them to get things done quickly.
> Honestly, the hubris of designers can be amazing. As if aesthetics is a universal.
another choice quote. FYI, design has very little to do with aesthetics; Design is how something works. Aesthetics is just one tool that should help to make clear how something works.
> They'll do your work for you.
No. No they won't. They'll leave your site for one that is easier to understand and use, where they can do as little work as possible to get done what they want to get done. If you disagree, go try to prove it in the marketplace. I think the market has made quite clear what level of design users prefer.
This is the most design-ignorant post I've seen on HN in a long time, and I think this quote really highlights what's wrong with it. No, not all pages have navigation that can be put in some One True Hierarchy metadata style. To take five high-volume sites as example: Facebook, Bank of America, Google Search, Google Docs, and Google Maps all have fundamentally different usage patterns that simply would not work if styled in remotely the same way.
Yes, if all pages were just essays with occasional links (as they were in the 90's), then pages w/o site-provided CSS would be great and you could use user styles for all your customization (FYI, feel free to click View > Page Style > No Style in your menu bar to do this for yourself). Cool, but it's 2014 now, and people expect their websites to be native-competitive applications that allow them to get things done quickly.
> Honestly, the hubris of designers can be amazing. As if aesthetics is a universal.
another choice quote. FYI, design has very little to do with aesthetics; Design is how something works. Aesthetics is just one tool that should help to make clear how something works.
> They'll do your work for you.
No. No they won't. They'll leave your site for one that is easier to understand and use, where they can do as little work as possible to get done what they want to get done. If you disagree, go try to prove it in the marketplace. I think the market has made quite clear what level of design users prefer.