1 Excellent Article!

Very good information ehre Stephen. Thank you for writing about it. That gas pump image (the bad one) reminded me of one I saw on some highway in Ohio:

http://www.twitpic.com/74gy

this one has usability issues.

posted at 10:37 am on April 21, 2009 by Brian Artka

2 Generally agree, as long as it don't look like an

I generally agree in the point, that aesthetics play a great role in perception of an UI as professionel.

But I think the given example with “Export for Clip Notes” and “Your points balance” confuse more than help.
If the point was to illustrate that eye-catchy windows like the second one are better, I disagree. It looks like an ad, and would have me turn away at once. And the first one, is an good example of how to much functionality can make an UI hard to decode.

If it was to point out the difficulties in deciding which one is more professional, as the author asks, then it is unfortunately not followed up by any comments, and leaves the reader in doubt of the authors intention.

posted at 10:43 am on April 21, 2009 by Bjørn Nielsen

3 About Time

Hurrah!
This article is long overdue. The lack of respect for creatives and visual designers within this facet of the so-called “design” industry is staggering. More articles like this are needed to start educating the more technically minded, and to remind them that their reliance on cold data isn’t always right.

Cheers!

posted at 10:49 am on April 21, 2009 by Duncan Macdonald

4 Thank you for questioning the myth

I think this is a fantastic article that I’m going to pass around to my design team.

The only comment I wanted to make is that I personally think that there is a limit on aesthetics in web development. Every designer needs to ask themselves if the “beautiful” additions they are making to a site are adding to its usability, or simply destractions pushing people away from the desired action.

It’s a fine line and one that is very subjective, but I’ve seen so many sites lately that add layer after layer of “fluff” while missing the essential need to establish a heirarchy and visually guide someone through the levels of importance.

posted at 11:02 am on April 21, 2009 by Chris Meeks

5 great read

very cool an interesting read. thanks!

posted at 11:13 am on April 21, 2009 by Tim Wright

6 Great Article

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to argue with non-designers about decisions I’ve made (to improve a design). It great to see articles like this validate my concerns.

posted at 11:35 am on April 21, 2009 by Neal G

7 Nielsen Anyone?

I always feel inclined to ignore the things he has to say when I visit Jakob Nielsen’s www.useit.com. Anybody else think that site is just plain gross?

Regardless, really nice to see a well informed and researched opinion on the debate. I get the feeling I’ll link this article next time I find myself having this debate.

posted at 11:37 am on April 21, 2009 by Peter Cardwell-Gardner

8 “form and function should be one, joined in a sp

Heh. I’d say that in nature form follows function; we’re just tuned to liking those forms because we’re used to them. Unless he’s saying that nature possesses some absolute beauty, which is a big old unsubstantiated claim.

posted at 11:42 am on April 21, 2009 by Robert Grant

9 Great Discussion

Thank you for writing about eye candy. You discussed it a long good way and your examples satisfied my hunger for truth.

posted at 11:43 am on April 21, 2009 by Michael Morgan

10 Ear candy.

Fantastic article.

I will read this article to our team
when we sit in a meeting again and make wholehearted attempts
to deploy “something that looks like a user interface!”.

I’m a total fan of simple stuff and I’m happy that the times of “ugly” webdesign are over (there are still exceptions, but they are easy to avoid these days).

Our world is 3D – cluttered – structured – textured – colourful – shadowed – foggy – dusty.
That’s how we should design and experience “Eye Candy”.

I started taking photos with the lowest quality settings and it made me more happy than chasing for the “Sharpest cleanest photo”.

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – I have to agree.

See you next time.
Oliver, Germany

posted at 12:23 pm on April 21, 2009 by Oliver Ruehl

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