Is "good" design something that we are perpetually refining and improving over time, or is it merely a menagerie of trends?
>pic related: Android over the years
I have a feeling that a good design is and always will be the same in a nutshell, but when it comes to aesthetics, that is something which changes through time and everyone's taste adapts to trends to a some degree. Not many people will say they like those screens on the left (me included), but once, they were nice. Now, they just look ugly, it's weird in a way... But don't get me wrong, this is probably not the best example, because they were probably never beautiful.
>>298352
Both, at least in terms of Android/other touchscreen interfaces. It *was* a trend to have buttons with "shading" to make them look like real buttons (the "was" part is something Sony hasn't figured out yet...). But it was improved over time to make the shading less intrusive... And then we get Material Design, which was also a trend, going with the futuristic, plastic-y styles that we're getting with physical products, along with the whole Windows 8 meme with bright, solid colors and well-defined "tiles". And that was improved over time to be easier on the eye, slicker, etc. Personally I wish more Material Design apps offered a night mode/dark theme, the bright white used in most of them is pretty jarring.
That final image isn't very recent, btw.
Android looks like this now, when was that image last updated? The material design there is super gross.
>>298390
Is that a Nexus?
Also is it 2 screenshots or something? You've got your widgets and Maps cut in half there
I did a bit of ricing; Nova Launcher, KWGT, and an icon pack called Stealth.
"Good" design in my opinion is very personal, although most designers would consider design that follows the design principles/guidelines to a larger extent to be "good design", aka hierarchy, alignment, good use of typography and white space, etc.
Design trends basically shift between clean, functional, "if it doesn't do anything, it does not belong on the page" kind of a thinking; and on the other side it's the natural, artistic freeflowing design that art deco and the like came from. Right now we are in a clean phase, but I can already see rebelling against it.
For me, "good design" is functional. Attract the viewer's attention and make it easy for them to find what they need. That's why UX design is blowing up.
>>298352
In the case of Android, both
>menagerie of trends
This is the case for everything, for all time
>refining and improving over time
In the case of Android, they didn't give a shit about design in 1.0, so they didn't spend much time on it. Then they realised it was important, so they invested more in UI design.
With iOS I'd say only the trends bit is true. Because they designed a lot in UI design up front.
But if you're saying that design AS A WHOLE is "refining and improving over time", I'd fundamentally disagree with you. Just fashions innit.
>>298441
I always thought design as just fashion. But my classmates and teachers insist that there are eternal design principles and one of them insists that there is something as "timeless beauty".
>>298446
I always thought design as just fashion. But my classmates and teachers insist that there are eternal design principles
I seriously hope you're both underage
>>298468
Under what age? There's no "legal drinking age" for school...