In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the best three minutes of TV this year. It’s the SNL Digital Short where Andy Samberg punches people in the face right before they take a bite of food.
I love a lot of things about this video:
- People get punched in the face.
- A lot.
- It features Dave Grohl.
Buy my favorite thing about this is that anyone could have thought of this concept, but nobody did. And that’s what I like about good design; rarely does anyone do anything impressive that isn’t stunningly simple.
I like my music the same way. When I learned to play guitar, I was always way more impressed with super simple songs than songs with dozens of chord changes. Anyone with two hands and the ability to pinch could’ve written pretty much every Nirvana song ever made. But they didn’t. And that’s what makes it genius.
Good web design is no different. I really like learning about new software features, and I was way too excited when I saw, say, the Spry widgets that came with Dreamweaver CS3. But six or so months later, I still haven’t used any of them in a project for a paying client. Is it because they’re worthless? Of course not. They’re cool. And I’ve used them all at one time or another in my first site mockups, but I always wind up deleting them before I’m finished. The problem is with me: I haven’t adapted to them yet.
The same thing has happened with Flash. Remember when tons of sites used Flash where there was basically no reason for it? I’m sure there are lots of exceptions, but by and large, I think Flash is now mostly used for things best done in Flash, i.e. things that just cannot be done in any other way. Unnecessary Flash has gone the way of the splash screen.
Back to my original point: Right now, there’s a super-simple way of creating an interface or making a menu or doing something important related to web design. Unfortunately, nobody’s thought of it yet. The tools to do it have already existed for years now. It’s just waiting to be discovered.
P.S. A lame way to end this would be with a pun about “waiting for the next great idea to punch us in the face.” But, as you already know, I’m a shitty writer.
