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Design Fallacies(elischiff.com)

over 8 years ago from Eli Schiff, elischiff.com

  • Eli SchiffEli Schiff, over 8 years ago

    We already celebrate great design. In fact, quite unfortunately, we also very often celebrate awful and harmful design. It is exactly honest but critical dialogue that's needed. More congratulatory praise is not something that needs to be invited. It's a given that it will happen. Criticism requires saying things that make people uncomfortable and is thus much less often practiced in any rigorous or meaningful way.

    There are some designs that are legitimately coming from the wrong place. Nine times out of ten it's unintentional. Nonetheless, strong criticism is necessary, especially when the entire industry converges around a dark pattern.

    1 point
    • Sam MularczykSam Mularczyk, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

      I'm of the opinion that we don't celebrate design enough. That's not saying that we shouldn't criticise - you're absolutely right that it's important. But if you look at the comments of any Brand New article, for every positive comment there's what feels like 9 minor complaints. Some of those are valid, but most are just points made without knowledge of the business or context. Completely disregarding context when giving criticism is pretty ignorant IMO.

      I genuinely don't think that congratulatory praise is a given, Dribbble notwithstanding (the lack of criticism there is scary). In some places strong criticism is necessary, but most of the time I think we all talk out of our arses and pretend we know more than we actually do.

      This is excluding questioning industry-wide trends like the hamburger, share icons etc. Dark patterns/unintuitive trends definitely need to be called out. No question.

      It's the trend of ganging up on specific people & designs that makes me uncomfortable. I absolutely love and relish pure constructive criticism; I think I can attribute that to my development as a designer more than anything else. But I've also had experiences with people that have been unnecessarily harsh and rude about my work without stopping to think about the context. So this is an issue that's quite personal to me.

      1 point