Sunday, August 07, 2011

The Platform Restriction

I have heard product designers and user experience designers blame the limitations of the platform they are required to use for poor design or lack of design in their products. I don't buy that. I wrote my college thesis using a word processing software called WordStar.

It had one of the best user interfaces in the world at that time. The designers of WordStar had three colors and text to work with. They produced a piece of software that was a pleasure to work with. I think for a good soldier, even a blade of grass can be a weapon.

A constraint is a wonderful opportunity to stretch one's mind and bring out one's creativity. Blaming the platform for poor design is just laziness.

The designers of WordStar built a wonderful product with text and three colors

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