The Idiot Line(biasedbit.com)
biasedbit.com
The Idiot Line
http://biasedbit.com/blog/the-idiot-line/
5 comments
Very condescending piece. There is no universally best design, it's always the best _for a set of people_. The developer's mistake is that he optimizes for his own kind and designs things such that people who have a clue get an awesome interface. But most people don't have a clue about a very specific piece of software. Therefore it's likely that they optimized for the wrong kind of people. That is the true reason. I myself just accepted that there's stuff that I love and stuff that the majority loves and most of the time the design choices are completely opposite, so I just settle for their 'best'.
I am an engineer and I have built some rather impressive software in my time. However I grew up in design, I worked in design, my diploma says design. On what side of this line do I belong? I feel that not everything is as black and white as the author might suggest.
It's not a design vs engineering boundary; it's a competence boundary. Your boundary simply encompasses more knowledge, of more areas — and thus you don't fit the archetype the article talks about.
The Idiot Line between being an author and a hack must be somewhere between the heading tag where you all caps your negative then drop in an F bomb modifier for shock value.
Also, Leonardo Da Vinci.
Also, Leonardo Da Vinci.
Design is easy. Good design is hard.
One might say design is nuanced.
Truth.
"Argue for your limitations, and they're yours."