[bichiliad]

When apps describe themselves as "beautiful" and "elegant," it rubs me the wrong way. Those are subjective things that I decide, not the developer(s). It's like a mother telling everyone how handsome her son is. If he's handsome, people will probably know it already.

[enraged_camel]

I disagree. Someone describing their app as "beautiful" or "elegant" tells me that they really care about the beauty and elegance of the app and have spent time to make it so to the point where they are confident in attaching those adjectives to it. In my opinion, this is a good thing, because we need more people who actually care about what they build. I think that the audience being the ultimate judge, while true, is besides the point.

[subsection1h]

> Someone describing their app as "beautiful" or "elegant" tells me that they really care about the beauty and elegance of the app

When I see an app described as beautiful or elegant, I assume that it lacks important features. I assume the same when an app is described as lightweight. When I see an app described by critics as bloated or having a steep learning curve, I assume it might be useful.

[nmjohn]

Yikes, I think people missed your point.

From the beginning of the internet until maybe 3 or so years ago - in a majority of cases, design was an afterthought. Only functionality mattered.

More recently this has changed. Is calling your app beautiful and elegant overdone and maybe even a little cocky? Probably. However I personally really like applications that look beautiful.

For whatever psychological reason it may be, I simply enjoy the experience more. Take the chrome extension Momentum [0] for example. The only thing I get out of it is when I open a new tab, I see a pretty picture. However I _like_ that pretty picture and it enhances my experience. Logically, I can't come up with a solid argument - it might even be complete bullshit - but as soon as I'm on a computer that doesn't have it, I feel like I'm missing something.

[0]: http://momentumdash.com/

[bichiliad]

To clarify, I'm definitely, 100% not saying that you should never work on the appearance and interactions of your app. I'm a firm believer that this will totally make or break an app's success. I'm just saying that calling your app pretty isn't necessary.

[doctorstupid]

At the bottom there may be an element of advertising. There's so much code out there, and labels such as 'beautiful' and 'elegant' make an app stand out - in a similar way that a shampoo bottle having 'extreme pro plus' slapped onto it might. That and hipster prestige.

[GrinningFool]

Mostly true - labels like "beautiful" and "elegant" make an app stand out when those labels are applied by other people, and not the developer of the app.

[ZenoArrow]

True, but this style of advertising is straight from Apple's playbook, and it didn't seem to rub many people the wrong way when they did it.

[lazylizard]

老王卖瓜，自卖自夸

[ZenoArrow]

Google Translate sez... Pharaoh praises puff. Thanks, I guess!