Since the pandemic struck in 2019, there has been growing evidence of critical writing on the subject of “anti-design”. With reference to your own experience and three sources, what is your perspective on the Design/Anti-design discourse? Shenyue Jian BA User Experience Design What is anti-design: “Anti-design is a digital design approach that rejects convention and traditional aesthetics in favor of challenging, innovative layouts.”, anti-design does not meaning produce ugly design but exploring new design styles, creativity and progressive sprite are part of design’s nature. Anti-design seems to be tangible in different contexts. The article: Anti-design: the anti-rule book redefining digital design (Levanier, 2022), mentions the comment design concept for great user experiences is that, the whole experience needs to be continuous, the user can make simple and unconscious decisions without any obstructions. However, anti-design designers think that unconscious, easy experience is not what people want. Image 1: from Urbane Künste Ruhr In my experience of designing website, yes, there are certain rules and structures, that have been used for years with small amounts of changes or adjustments. For example, most websites using grids, have a menu bar, banner, hero image, about page…. By learning from predecessors’ experiences and wisdom, a flow to build a website has been summed up, with the purpose of efficiently deliver accessible, accurate information, as time goes on, the design could get boring, and maybe one day AI would be able to replace web designers. The article: The New Wave of Anti-design Magazines Will Question Your Sense of Taste—and That’s a Good,(Moran, 2017). Anti-design is a “clean, oh-so-tasteful design”, which got a bit “cliche”. One sentence to express the effect of anti-design is: “In a sea of minimalism and luxury, these doing-it-wrong mags are the ones that stand out.” To be “anti” designers need to know what is “design” first then be able to change it, just like Picasso’s process of from realistic to abstract. Image 2: from AIGA On other hand, anti-design is full of artistic, but often has accessibility and readability issues, which are the fundamental things that we “traditionally” want to avoid. For example, the image below from Eye Magazine, has inspiring design. But when I see the upside-down “design” as a must-read title appearing in the focal point, I subconsciously feel that this is very complicated information, then want to skip the poster straightaway. Anti-design wants to create an experience that is impressive, involve thinking. But, our end user has been so used to “good design”, any interruption, obstruction during the experience, would cause intense discomfort, which I am not sure if that’s what an-ti design wants to deliver. Image 3: from Eye Magazine In the article “Brutalism and Antidesign” (Moran, 2017) a quote from uxdesign.cc: “[…] throw elements on the screen, without worrying too much about how they work together. Who are you to define hierarchy anyway? Let each element fight for the spotlight.” The formation and development of UX are all in response to the needs of society and users. The whole thing about UX design are learn from users' psychology, conscious/ unconscious behaviours… so that create fluent, immersive, accessible design for user to complete what they want to do quickly. What anti-design is doing is the complete opposite, no information hierarchy, no accessible colour consideration, no grids…which is brutal. In my opinion, anti-design is not anti-user, the truth of design is to serve. In the path of avoiding traditional style, layouts, rules... As a design style, it's still important to keep it accessible and readable. All in all, it is not about how we designers judge it, but at the very end, the users, the customers would give it a ruthless judgment. Reference List:
Levanier, J. (2022). Anti-design: the anti-rule book redefining digital design. [online] 99designs. Available at: https://99designs.co.uk/blog/design-history-movements/anti-design/ [Accessed 4 Dec. 2022]. Moran, K. (2017). Brutalism and Antidesign. [online] Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/brutalism-antidesign/ [Accessed 4 Dec. 2022]. Ridpath, J. (2016). Should we take the Anti Design Festival as seriously as the LDF? [online] Eye Magazine. Available at: https://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/up-the-ante [Accessed 4 Dec. 2022]. urbanekuensteruhr.de. (n.d.). Stream - Urbane Künste Ruhr. [online] Available at: https://urbanekuensteruhr.de/de/stream/all [Accessed 4 Dec. 2022].
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