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I'll toss in a few thoughts. Design is something that evolves over time. We're slowing working towards improving the design of the internet by taking two steps forward and one back. We build off each other, so you don't see huge changes in design overnight. This is no different than any other technology. If I raise someone in solitude, and ask them to design a car, it'll be quite primitive. Modern cars improve each year from those prior. Occasionally they misjudge, and take a step backwards, but over time, they improve. It's the same with design. If you ask someone that has no experience online to design a webpage, they'll fall short. We keep building from what we assume is the best. If a popular site goes with flat design, it leads us to believe flat design might be attributing to their success. So, we try to follow suit with trial and error. If flat design is working for them, maybe taking it to an even more extreme and reducing all images and gradients will leave us even more successful. Or, maybe only some aspects of their flat design are contributing to their success, and it's a balance between flat and non-flat elements. Which is best? No one knows. We'll try all the possible combinations, and gravitate towards what's successful with profits, and with users. You can't expect these changes over night. Right now designers are quite sure the future involves more minimal design. The only way to test this is to experiment with different combinations. So, don't piss on someone because they try an extremely flat design and it fails. The only reason we know it fails is because they went out on a limb to try it out. Instead, thank them for trying, look towards any aspects of their design that did work, and improve on their failure. I can guarantee we're going to have an even better experience browsing the internet 10 years from now. It's going to happen because of many designers and developers failing, and few standing on them and succeeding. |