I feel like these articles miss the point that ultimately, UI is about people. If people don't actually enjoy it and have a better experience, then it doesn't matter how nice it looks.
From the intro:
I was a UX designer with no UI skills. I love designing UX, but I wasn’t doing it for long before I realized there were a bunch of good reasons to learn how to make an interface look nice:
My portfolio looked like crap, reflecting poorly on my work and thought process
My UX consulting clients would rather buy someone’s skills if their expertise extended to more than just sketching boxes and arrows
Did I want to work for an early-stage startup at some point? Best to be a sweeper
If you take his comments about overlaying text, for example, he's offering tips on how to keep overlaid text readable while also looking gorgeous. This is something that combines both usability with visual appeal.
I'd also argue that _people_ aren't a bunch of automatons who use computer interfaces simply to accomplish tasks. A "gorgeous" UI can make an otherwise mundane task (e.g., looking up which recipes to cook) into something fun and enjoyable.
I wish I could upvote this comment more. On a front-end client client for a US CBP command and control system, I had to design and implement both a day and night mode. The operators loved the night mode so much they ran it during the day too.. they called it sexy mode. It was the first time I saw how excited and fun they were having because they just felt cool using the system. The experience had a huge impact on me.
A UI that's entirely functional without being flashy or visually attractive still accomplishes its mission (e.g. space shuttle control panels). A UI that's beautiful to look at but can't be understood is of little value.
I think reasonable people can agree that interfaces should be usable and beautiful. I think it is then also reasonable that someone would want to have a focused discussion on just one part of that.
This article is about creating things that look good. It isn't saying "this is all you should care about, it doesn't matter how your UI functions", it's just saying "these are some tips for making this look good". Making things usable is outside the scope of the article, but there's plenty of articles discussing usability. This single article does not contain every piece of information you need to understand interface design, it just covers one aspect. It isn't uncommon for an article to have a subject.
"The aesthetic-usability effect describes a phenomenon in which people perceive more-aesthetic designs as easier to use than less-aesthetic designs—whether they are or not."[0]
Point is - something that looks good may "trick" the person into thinking something is more usable even if it's not.
[0] https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/universal-pri...
> ..then it doesn't matter how nice it looks.
In a way, making it usable (done elegantly) is part of "gorgeous" UI. I wouldn't underestimate the power of beautiful visual design. It evokes user's emotions in such a way that makes it memorable. It makes it a great UX all around. I try not to look at it in a separate way as the whole thing (usable and nice visually) is what makes it beautiful.
But in its crude form, I do agree the usability is the most important but I just think visual design is not too far from it.
If you show a user two pages, one with very well thought out UX but looks like it was designed in 1998, and a convoluted UX that happens to be extremely pretty, the second page is going to be favored to the vast majority of people.