I enjoyed this Time article about how a design economy is taking over America. I’ve always paid attention to (what I consider) good design so I didn’t really notice it was entering the mainstream until I realized I was actually finding elegantly crafted household items at Target. When I finished reading the article, it dawned on me that the web has brought style to software. I wouldn’t say that anyone creating traditional application software and certainly not command line UIs (though that’s a “fashion” statement of its own now) was interested in style. Applications eventually settled into that standard OS look and feel (Mac, Windows, Unix) which was boringly similar because it needed to be consistent and therefore useable. But the web has brought style to what is essentially becoming the software you primarily use on your system (though in a browser). Most people, the ones new to computers these days, mainly surf the web; that’s what they think the computer is. The software they see and use are the web pages they visit. Many developers and designers are paying attention to usability in this new realm, though they often end up compromising with artists or their marketing department or other people who don’t “get” the principles of user interaction. I don’t think “web apps” will settle into the same visual consistency that a Mac or Windows app has, though there will be common paradigms for interaction. Is this a good thing? Well, it makes the world a more beautiful place. And my hope is that it is provoking more task-centered user interface design instead of “OK, we need to make this look and work like Microsoft Office.” It should be all about understanding form and function, as you would when designing a physical object. (article via xblog, which I think is the bees’ knees!)