Simplicity

I started off this post with intent to comment on the design of the website accompanying the recently released The Day After Tomorrow film. I guess part of my reason for always identifying badly designed sites is that it's easier to learn from other's mistakes, and more constructive for the subject involved. It's not about being a pessimist. Being honest and openly opinionated when it comes to something as subjective as design is the best compliment you can give. This ties in somewhere with my aversion to the always controversial design awards, but my train of thought is somewhat disrailed this evening so I won't go there. Basically, it's bad character to say you love something when you don't.

Also, bad webdesign by far outweighs the good.

The same principle applies to how we design ourselves, whether it's as trivial as a new hair style or colour, an item of clothing or something more extreme such as body art/piercing. Although in this case, honesty and insensitivity cross wires. If we take it upon ourselves to redesign our physical appearance we'd either be doing it for personal reasons, or to gain the attention of others - in which case being open to criticism is something we should already have acknowledged. Whether we take the negative feedback and make it into something positive is left to us, given that the criticism we receive is self-imposed.

One of the most important things I've learnt through teaching myself design is to keep things simple. That applies to all types of design. I've never been good with words so I'll quote spam-man Paul Graham, whose must-read Taste for Makers essay I stumbled on via the big gppgle.com.

"It seems strange to have to emphasize simplicity. You'd think simple would be the default. Ornate is more work. But something seems to come over people when they try to be creative. Beginning writers adopt a pompous tone that doesn't sound anything like the way they speak. Designers trying to be artistic resort to swooshes and curlicues. Painters discover that they're expressionists. It's all evasion. Underneath the long words or the "expressive" brush strokes, there is not much going on, and that's frightening.
When you're forced to be simple, you're forced to face the real problem. When you can't deliver ornament, you have to deliver substance."

With that in mind and returning to my original intention for this post, the The Day After Tomorrow website is, in my mind, piss-poor.

It's an exercise to use. It's features defy logic. It doesn't react as expected. Most bizarre I find, is how the site enteres "sleep mode". Clicking to download a desktop picture launches a popup window. Upon returning to the parent window (the site itself is contained in a popup) the following message is displayed over the semi-visible site: "click anywhere to wake up site".

Why did it fall asleep in the first place? Is there a clever concept behind having to wake up the website that I'm overlooking?

I just don't get it.

So anyway. The Daily Mail claims that Cape Town has produced the most attractive Big Brother UK housemate. Ever. No shock there...