Why We Crave Software With Style Over "Branding" - Future
future.a16z.com · 2,537 words · saved by 1 readers
Modern software’s uniformity has fueled a craving for more interesting, opinionated tools — turning inanimate pixels into something with soul.
Within the past few years, tech companies’ digital design all started to look the same: marginally, monotonously quirky; safe. From the sans-serif fonts to the muted pastel color palette, the stark white backgrounds to the curvy shape and hue of the buttons, most modern software blurs together into a familiar, squint-and-you’ll-confuse-it aesthetic. Historically, the look of software has been reactive, reflecting the ethos of the times. And for years, that worked. That autotuned design made products seem cool but accessible; youthful, but trustworthy. More recently, however, that comfortably t
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