What is "ugly" software?

Posted by Paul J. Miller
Jul 12, 2018 at 09:01 AM

Paul Korm wrote:
>Obviously a question of preference with no possible basis in fact, but
>the question is: can design really be everything? If software doesn’t
>have a pretty face is that a permanent thumbs down?

I am a very visual person and the way a program looks has a very big influence over my perception of it.

The interface should look nice and be visually intuitive (no “what the hell does that do?” moments) but power is more important than looks, if something is more powerful and does what I want it to do then I will learn to live with the looks.

Having said that if a program comes along which is just as powerful (or even less powerful but does all I need it to do) and has a nicer visual interface then I would switch.