Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’s article “So the Colors Cover the Wires”: Interface, Aesthetics, and Usability” reminded me a lot of chapter one “What is Design” in Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek.
Kirschenbaum’s discussion of interfaces as “layers” and the “distinction between different layers of interface…and ‘content’ is one that runs counter to decades of work in literary and cultural criticism, where form and content are almost instinctively understood as inextricable from one another.” To developers, the interface is computationally distinct from the content it intends to portray. However, Papanek states, “Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order.” By designing an interface, the developer is imposing an order on the content that cannot be separated from the visualization. The biggest question in design is whether the design should be functional or aesthetically pleasing. Papanek describes six parts of the functions of design in order to answer the question. These fuctions are as follows: method (tools, materials, processes); association (education, culture); aesthetics (gestalt, perception); need (goal formation); Telesis (technological bias); and use (as tool, as communication). All designers need to take these six functions into consideration in order to produce a functional and aesthetically pleasing design. However, many designers strive for a more concise statement that the six functions: they seek precision, simplicity. For Papanek, “the particular satisfaction derived from the simplicity of a thing can be called elegance. When we speak of an elegant solution, we refer to something that reduces the complex to the simple,” much in the same way developers seek to create an elegant yet simple interface.
An example of an elegant interface I have recently discovered is Freunde von Freunden’s website. In April, FvF published the article “Rethinking Storytelling and Usability: FvF’s Approach to Digital Publishing.” It details the development of a new interface “as a matter of usabil
ity in synergy with content and aesthetics.” Since FvF publishes many interviews with guests that involve exploring their neighborhoods and studios, they decided to redesign the individual story pages that “interweave visuals with writing.” In the article FvF discusses their steps in developing the new interface, including a new feature they had to develop from scratch in order to “combine image, text, and video into seamless stories.” This article directly ties back to Kirschenbaum’s about the difficulties of creating interfaces, as well with Papanek’s writing on successful design.