But then I even see “poseur” high style, and in a way too much can cheapen the value. See how many websites now use the plastic button style Apple introduced ages ago. a large part of the Web 2.0 look IMO apes Apple a lot. This is not necessarily bad, but it can be a substitute for real design. Even the most utilitarian companies have switched to a version of this button style to run with the cool crowd. HP makes an especially poor effort on their site in this respect.

But we have a lot more, better style now than ever before due to its prevalence in pop culture outlets. Perhaps this will keep the ball rolling for longer than I projected.

I hope you’re wrong Paul. There seems to be a real blossoming of design appreciation among the “unwashed masses” – something completely new and, frankly, long overdue. In automotive design, in household product design (Target), in interior design and architecture (note the rapid growth of HGTV), in consumer electronics and computers (Apple) – people are finally starting to wake up and say “We don’t want ugly crap any more.” And they’re willing to pay the extra money for common everyday products that look beautiful and work in elegant ways. And I don’t know that you can turn back once you start down that path. In other words, is good taste merely a fad? I doubt it.

It’s time eLearning be given the same extreme makeover everything else seems to be getting.

The one key aspect of pretty much all elearning design I have seen and been a user of is the general unfitness of its visuals. I make it a big part of what I do. I’m no art-degreed design whiz, but I think I can cut the mustard well enough to put out a good course people won’t want to shut off. Also, so many people are so used to seeing ugly courses that the second something comes along that’s actually organized and designed visually, the sooner their minds shift from “man I have to sit through another one of these” to “hmm, interesting; this is the best course yet”.

As far as design csimplcitiy goes, it coems and goes. Obviously way back when Coca Cola’s design WAS simpler than the complex can you show, and then it got to the complex can via marketing sensibilities and product design technologies. These days, everything is going back to basics (a movement kicked off partly by Apple and its products and website) because everything got complex and whiz-bang, and then everyone woke up and asked “hey, why DOES it need to be that busy?”.

In 15 years it’ll be gawdy Hollywood on store shelves again.