March 16, 2009 at 11:46Anti-design
The goal - making a profit - can be achieved both by actions that we are accustomed to perceive “with a plus sign”, and those that we see “with a minus sign”.
In marketing, there is the concept of "demarketing", actions aimed at reducing demand. A company can benefit from this under certain conditions. An analogue of demarketing for solving problems of reducing data availability is anti-design.
Anti-design is not just ignoring or not knowing the laws of design. It is their conscious non-observance for profit.
For example, in full compliance with the law “1 + 1 = 3”, a warning about the dangers of smoking becomes an unreadable mess. The eye will simply ignore him. This of course goes into the hands of cigarette manufacturers.
More examples and reasoning in my post here
nordisk.pp.ru/design/45
or with some changes under the cat
License plates on cars should serve one purpose - to identify the owner. Therefore, the information on them should be as visible and easy to remember. In some countries, the driver may himself come up with a combination of letters on a sign such as JEFF, MADMAX or something else. The police must fully support this practice because people tend to come up with meaningful phrases that are easy to remember. In this American sign, the state of the owner is indicated graphically. Even catching a glimpse of a sign, a policeman or a passer-by will know where the quickly hiding car is attributed.
The American sign is not perfect, but the designations on the Russian license plates represent an incomparable mess of arbitrary letters, numbers of different sizes, positions, and graphic garbage in the form of frames. With a cursory glance, at best, three numbers will be remembered. To find out the region, you have to climb into the directory.
Of course, I do not blame the authors of these issues for deliberately confusing people, but look what happens. Owing to the poor design of our signs, a whole shadow market for trading in "beautiful" numbers has developed. The situation is absurd. This is beneficial for corrupt policemen, but buyers of the “beauty” o777oo-177, by developing corruption, unknowingly help the police in their own identification. It turns out that the ordinary owner of a hard-to-read number has more chances to hide.
By the way, Soviet automobile standards were much more focused on ease of perception.
Confusing, poorly designed forms, the authorities make access to information difficult. I can’t judge intentionally whether they do it or not, but such an impression is created. Some people cannot overcome the barriers of perception that result in whole companies and markets that help with paperwork. In fact, they sell access to information that is formally open, but really strongly hidden. It is very bad when this is done intentionally. This develops corruption and creates “hereditary” markets.
Design: both in terms of design and decoration, it is a tool to achieve your goals. It is generally accepted that good design is when the goal is achieved to facilitate the perception of information. However, the goal can be exactly the opposite - to complicate the perception of information, and you can achieve it just as expertly applying the same design laws, but vice versa.
Anti-design is a tool to deliberately confuse a person, to consciously give him the requested information in such a way that it is most difficult for him to use it.
In marketing, there is the concept of "demarketing", actions aimed at reducing demand. A company can benefit from this under certain conditions. An analogue of demarketing for solving problems of reducing data availability is anti-design.
Anti-design is not just ignoring or not knowing the laws of design. It is their conscious non-observance for profit.
For example, in full compliance with the law “1 + 1 = 3”, a warning about the dangers of smoking becomes an unreadable mess. The eye will simply ignore him. This of course goes into the hands of cigarette manufacturers.
More examples and reasoning in my post here
nordisk.pp.ru/design/45
or with some changes under the cat
License plates on cars should serve one purpose - to identify the owner. Therefore, the information on them should be as visible and easy to remember. In some countries, the driver may himself come up with a combination of letters on a sign such as JEFF, MADMAX or something else. The police must fully support this practice because people tend to come up with meaningful phrases that are easy to remember. In this American sign, the state of the owner is indicated graphically. Even catching a glimpse of a sign, a policeman or a passer-by will know where the quickly hiding car is attributed.
The American sign is not perfect, but the designations on the Russian license plates represent an incomparable mess of arbitrary letters, numbers of different sizes, positions, and graphic garbage in the form of frames. With a cursory glance, at best, three numbers will be remembered. To find out the region, you have to climb into the directory.
Of course, I do not blame the authors of these issues for deliberately confusing people, but look what happens. Owing to the poor design of our signs, a whole shadow market for trading in "beautiful" numbers has developed. The situation is absurd. This is beneficial for corrupt policemen, but buyers of the “beauty” o777oo-177, by developing corruption, unknowingly help the police in their own identification. It turns out that the ordinary owner of a hard-to-read number has more chances to hide.
By the way, Soviet automobile standards were much more focused on ease of perception.
Confusing, poorly designed forms, the authorities make access to information difficult. I can’t judge intentionally whether they do it or not, but such an impression is created. Some people cannot overcome the barriers of perception that result in whole companies and markets that help with paperwork. In fact, they sell access to information that is formally open, but really strongly hidden. It is very bad when this is done intentionally. This develops corruption and creates “hereditary” markets.
Design: both in terms of design and decoration, it is a tool to achieve your goals. It is generally accepted that good design is when the goal is achieved to facilitate the perception of information. However, the goal can be exactly the opposite - to complicate the perception of information, and you can achieve it just as expertly applying the same design laws, but vice versa.
Anti-design is a tool to deliberately confuse a person, to consciously give him the requested information in such a way that it is most difficult for him to use it.