The Value of A Good Design

A while ago I got a universal remote. It had a support for all of the TV's features I found useful and I enjoyed it for a while.

However, the thing was ugly, and it had "bugs" - since it depended on AAA batteries (as most remotes do) it depleted them fast, and due to a poorly designed battery housing sometimes the batteries got loose a little, enough to lose contact and require me to fix this.

So I got a new universal remote. This one had a slick design, and used regular AA batteries (probably requiring an additional cost to create a special plastic template for the round design).

The thing was, it didn't have a support for all of the functions my previous remote had, so I found myself willing to lose features for a better design and a better user interface.

I think programmers are poor designers by general, and I had witnessed some really bad designs (imagine a data grid with a pink background for a C4I application) that came to be just because no one thought of consulting with a graphics designer.

A good UI may cost more, but it's worth it.