The reemergence of style in software | Hacker News Reader

The reemergence of style in software

future.a16z.com

FTA: "Style is not just an eye-catching color or a fun skeuomorphic icon. Style is the indescribable quality that sums up how interacting with something makes a person feel"

I think SJ had it better.

Steve Jobs: “Design is How it Works”

From The Guts of a New Machine, the 2003 New York Times article that profiled Apple just as the iPod was becoming recognized as a cultural phenomenon:

”Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s C.E.O. ”People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

I'm reminded of another story I read (probably on HN), where they showed architectural plans / designs from either 19th or early 20th century, from a time when houses where decorated with intricate stucco. The plans showed none of the beautiful stucco. The plans just showed the layout, and left the detailed design of the decoration to the craftsmen.

I think we often have it the wrong way around, nowadays. The project outline may specify to use Twitter bootstrap or Google material design (are those still a thing? It's been a while since I've done client work) but the important design, like UI flow etc is often left the implementor.

Then you end up with a crappy app that looks nice on screenshots, and people wonder why nobody lkkes it.

These bland styles of course correlates with the startup culture. High growth pressures leave no room for specific designs and these attempts would be scorned immediately (sadly) when these new companies are the most creative.

Lot of fluff in this article, but I do love Cash App's style, I've always used it as an example.

Looks just like Robinhood tbh.

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