16 March 2011 / Design Looking, feeling
Look and feel. I hate that term, and unfortunately I get to hear it a lot. As a designer I find it reductionist, condescending, fluffy. I know through various twiter conversations that it isn't a phrase universally hated throughout the design world, but for me … shudder. It irks me in the same way that 'quite literally' or 'in a very real sense' irk me. And I'm not alone. These two chaps are, as you'd expect, rather good at hitting the nail on the head:
"I've always mistrusted ‘look and feel’ as a phrase — apart from sounding vaguely pornographic, I think when you succumb to ‘look and feel’ you’re only a hop and a skip away from mood boards, and that really is the end of design as we know it. It’s the kind of phrase that researchers love to throw around in focus groups, a process almost always destined to remove the last hints of creativity from a project."
— Michael Johnson
"If clients are happy to refer to the output of graphic designers as ‘look and feel’, where’s the harm? Well, the harm is that it’s a euphemistic term that no better describes what good design can do that ‘nip and tuck’ describes the work of a skilled brain surgeon. We encourage its use at our peril. Resist, I say."
— Adrian Shaughnessy
I love that 'nip and tuck' comment. What I want is similar ammunition against 'look and feel' – when it's used by someone, I want to point out that it'd be like referring to their work as … something. Can you think of a similarly reductive term for other professions? Writers, accountants, managers, academics?
Reader Comments (8)
I confess to using "look & feel". Not because I think its good but because clients get it. Any suggestions to other such down-to-earth phrases that don't need explanations?
Unfortunately there is a whole lexicon of meaningless and unhelpful terms that the design industry has happily propagated. I’m not sure that ‘Look and feel’ is necessarily the worst offender, there are far bigger fish to fry.
I prefer terms that are immediately understood. Its too often that clients ask for definitions for terms used in project specs.
It's frustrating, but it's something that clients just understand. I find myself getting goosebumps when I hear it, but I hear it way too often and from people I can't correct that it's near impossible to avoid, so I suggest biting your lip.
What's wrong with the look & feel. You must just not like it because your designs don't pop enough. Maybe you should try making the logo bigger. And that blue isn't the right color, let me bring in my favorite sweater, I love that blue!
@Eric You made me LOL on the bus. Most embarrassing.
A term that makes me shudder is "At the end of the day" so often used by footballers and their managers but I must say I do like the term "Squeaky bum time" which was coined by a football manager - at the end of the day maybe they are good for something.... ahhh crap
Late to this, but I hate being called a "creative." Like I'm a kind of pet or something.