Comments on: "Pretty" Software Applications

By: Ben Hayes

Ben Hayes — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 02:26:28 +0000

In some ways Agile Development seems to make the aesthetic ‘visual design’ element harder. If I know there are 7 tabs along the top of the page, I can factor that into my choice of layout grid, for example. If the next iteration adds 2 more tabs, my design may fall apart. If I’m aiming for perfection - trying to make it so that every little thing is balanced visually, it seems horrible to be told ‘but it won’t stay like this for longer than 2 weeks’.

Are we accepting that the best looking web app, for example, with complex interaction, will never look as good as the best designed, fixed size printed brochure?

By: marc mcneill

marc mcneill — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:07:38 +0000

Excellent post! Nothing worse being brought in to advise on colours and fonts and layouts and usability when the fundamentals of the interaction design suck. Nothing worse than ending an iteration with a showcase of working functionality (”it does what it says on the card”) yet doesn’t fit into the overall flow, the user journey…

By: Shveta Aneja

Shveta Aneja — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:04:02 +0000

You are not alone out there in the world where the majority think that the core job of a designer is to make things pretty and that the work of a designer is like a work of an artist! But if the fundamentals of the product is broken, pretty design cannot save the product.

I think about it a lot, almost everyday - what can be done to change this thinking. Yes, we can do our part and do our best to advocate for what design process should be, but designers are not always the decision makers. Its almost like designers and non-designers (people who think designing is prettying) work for the same company, have shared goals but speak completely different languages!

By: Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 05:59:24 +0000

All very good points, but it is amazing how the two — getting the flow and usability of a site right and the beauty of the site — merge together and complement one another. The more usable an interface becomes, the more beautiful it becomes; the two are directly linked.

“My point is that I will not (and cannot) make your system look nice unless the basic interaction part is already taken care of.” My point is that as you fix the basic interaction the site will also improve aesthetically.

The reverse may not necessarily be true though. I have seen many “pretty” websites that were almost unusable. I put the word pretty in quotes because I actually think this is a skewed idea of what makes a pretty website. I personally think that, when defining a site as pretty, one must include the site’s usability.