Design

[supergee]

Scott Alexander shares one of my feelings. Yesterday he talked about "the kind of website I hate, with all the information carefully hidden away where it can’t interfere with the sleek design." Since design means two opposite things, I wish to propose terms to distinguish them. Nerd design enables users to see what the thing does and how to operate it. Arteest design appeals to other designers with subtlety, sleekness, understatedness, and other such qualities without pandering to the needs of the vulgar hordes who actually use the thing. The motto of nerd design is Edward Tufte's "Good design is clear thinking made visible." The motto of arteest design is "But that would be telling."

Comments

[arlie]

Good to see that distinction made explicit.

I've noticed the design team where I work talks a lot about nerd design, while generally committing arteest design.