Design Is Not The Goal
Posted by There is a well-known saying by Benjamin Franklin that states, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” If we take that lens to interaction design, we could say: In design nothing can be said to be certain, except eye candy and following new trends. The screens are changing, but the approach, sadly enough, is not.
Designers have penchant for all things with textures, embellishments, 3-D characteristics, as well as over-emphasized and generated effects -- this is where design is currently hovering. It is heavy on the visible layer of design and that is the intention. This approach is limiting because it places focus on getting attention for the design itself, rather than designing for purpose.
If I had to describe Web/interface design today I would say it looks like anything that Apple does -- multiplied by ten. They have certainly given us some of the best examples of experiences and proven to be very profitable with them.
“Steve Jobs does it right, famously saying, “Design is how it works, not how it looks,” but most firms copy his aesthetics and not his philosophy, applying design merely as marketing gloss in order to capture additional sales.” --Stefan Boublil
While they (Apple) remain a leading influencer in interaction design, they aren’t always perfect. Recently, they have jumped the skeumorphic shark with the latest iteration of iCal for the Mac OS. It seems they have forgotten their own design philosophy and are only changing how it looks, rather than changing how it works.
"The way to get people to love a calendar app is not to make it look like what they used 10 years ago, but to make it better than what they used 10 years ago." --Ben Brooks
This focus on style is unhealthy. If we create every design saturated with so much style -- which does nothing to inform or reflect behavior – the work is useless.
Read the full post on FINCH: http://www.getfinch.com/finch/entry/design-is-not-the-goal/
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