Why I love ugly, sloppy interfaces - and you probably too

This is a translation of the original Signal vs. Blog post. Noise is authored by designer Jonas Downey.

Nice. Fresh. Clean. Plain. Minimalistic . These words have dominated the design environment lately. If you managed to skip them, then look at a review of sites on Creativebloq. The word Beautiful is used 6 times, and Simple is used 11 times. In one article.

Developers use these words to describe their values, goals and results. They fill them with their portfolio and resume. Non-designers also use them. They are everywhere.
If you are trending, then your site probably looks something like this:

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Such a design has become so commonplace that Beautifuland Clean - these are, in fact, the basic concepts for new projects.
And that makes sense! Everyone likes things that are easy to grasp and that look bright and stylish. Nobody needs an ugly and sloppy design.

Or is it still needed?

An example of an unsurpassed ugly design

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But an example of another, extremely popular, bulky design

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And 1.5 million people use this design every month

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Wait a minute ... If Beauty, Freshness, Cleanliness, and Simplicity are so important, why no one has replaced all these products with something the best? And no, the point is not the absence of attempts. There are countless simpler and more attractive competitors to Craigslist and Photoshop.

The answer is that these products do an incredible job of solving the problems of their users, and their complex interfaces are one of the main reasons for their success.



Suppose your goal is to make a global network of trafficking between people. This is a large, complex project.

You could try to reduce your solution to the minimum version, trimming functionality and reducing the density of UI elements in the name of beauty and simplicity. Here's an attempt to redesign Craigslist. (Designers hate Craigslist, right? Is there still such a site for which so many unclaimed redesigns have been made?)

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Craigslist redesign concept from Aurélien SALOMON

Or, you may decide that you really cannot remove functions, because it’s more important to support all directions work. (Remember that you must support a huge number of scenarios for this project.)Then beauty and simplicity instantly get a lower priority. The desire to do something useful comes to the fore.

As another example, think about Photoshop. How many graphic designers who adore the Swiss Style (one of the founders of "Flat Design" - approx. Translation.) Use Photoshop every day? Probably the majority. However, the Photoshop user interface is the opposite of minimalism. But it doesn’t matter at all, because people don’t come to Photoshop for UI inspiration. They use it to do the job.

In other words, sometimes it’s not so great:

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When in reality you need this:

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In no case do I suggest that you go and start cluttering up the design of your site, or try to make it repulsive on purpose. I also do not claim that the above examples cannot be improved.

I believe that there is no unique way. There is no reason to believe that the presence of a large number of links or text on the page, or a dense placement of UI elements, is definitely bad. This can be a great solution to a specific problem. Especially if it's a big, bearded problem.

Products that solve such big, bearded problems are life buoys in life. I love to use these products because they work damn well . Of course, all this seems like a growing mess. But that’s why they work!

We do not have to pray all the time for the altar of a beautiful minimalistic design. Design should not be perceived as a jewel.
Throw away your assumptions and build what works best.

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