My Coffee Maker Just Makes Coffee

The ramble about designers being responsible is very shallow. “Designers” at these companies don’t have much say in what needs to be designed, they just have to figure out how it will look.

From coffee makers to software, there are plenty of people and companies that have the “do one thing well” ethos. You just have to be willing to pay a premium because in the modern age of global capitalism where making something abundant and cheap is easy, the opposite is much harder.

You fell for the Keurig meme. You want a coffee maker that just makes damn good coffee and will last you a long time? Get a solid italian made espresso machine. Or a Moka Pot, or a Chemex.

You spent $12 on a coffee maker (Westinghouse? Black and Decker? Sunbeam?) and yes it’ll make you a cup of black coffee, but nobody wants just black coffee. I want my black coffee to have hints of orange, chocolate, and citrus. I don’t just want black coffee.

Same with software. Simple doesn’t mean “black cup of joe” which would be akin to a command line app.

Simple means something intentionally made that sweats the smallest details within a specific function. I want my software to do one thing well, but be delightful to use. I want it to be fast, I want it to look nice, I want it to be simple and easy to use. And if it is all those things I will pay a premium for it.

“Things” app is an example that comes to mind.

A decent Keurig is ~$100 and will buy you maybe an hour or two of convenience over the lifetime of the machine. A decent cheap espresso machine is only a little bit more and the difference in drink quality is night-and-day.