Be Easy With The Bacon
Just because you can add something, doesn't mean you should
No doubt at some point you have heard the phrase, “Everything is better with bacon.” It’s cute to say and no doubt a chicken sandwich gets a little bit better with some salty smoky pork. But clever as the phrase is, we know it’s not always true. You can keep my lemon meringue pie bacon free, thanks. And most of the time people can make a pretty clear judgment whether or not some pork will pimp your lunch. If ONLY it were so easy with design.
We economists sing a little ditty that some designers and their clients need to learn the words to. It’s called “Fallacy of Composition” and it goes a little something like this:
Just because their website looks great with that Cool New Thing.
Doesn’t mean your website will look great with that Cool New Thing.
Their users appreciate / understand / can use the Cool New Thing.
Yours use IE6.
We creative types have a cast of common punch lines: Flash, IE6 (see above), Comic Sans, etc. The problem isn’t the stuff we know to watch out for; the problem is the new thing that your clients love and you are dying to work into a website. And it looks fantastic, and everyone loves that wacky gizmo that does the Cool New Thing, but it doesn’t take long for people to become confused about the massive Ajax application on that website you built for the Earlobe Iowa Antique Gallery. You took a simple store’s simple website and supercharged it so much that the folks who are regular users have no idea what’s happening. And even though the client asked for it, you should know better. You are the one being paid for your expertise, not them. You just stole their money. And you added bacon to my lemon meringue pie.
As Padma says, “Please pack yours knives and go.”
LOVE it. You are too stinkin funny. Such a fantastic point you make here about design… but….have you ever had lemon meringue pie with bacon…..ya never know…. =)
I’ve also never been hit in the face with a frying pan. I suppose we could start a list called “Lots of shit I’ve never done, but I’m pretty sure still sucks.”