The "Interface Evolution" comic by Eric Burke, which first appeared in the early 2000s, humorously highlights the complexity of user interfaces across Apple, Google, and enterprise software. Its popularity stems from its clever and insightful take on tech design philosophies. Widely shared and discussed in presentations and online, its frequent appearance across various platforms underscores its lasting relevance in tech and design circles.
To understand the intentionality of the work we need to know a little bit more about its author. Eric Burke is a computer programmer based in Columbus, Ohio. He is also a poet, with works published in notable journals such as Modern Haiku. Additionally, his insights into coding have been featured in a comic series, showcasing his unique blend of technical and creative skills.The investigation into the community's interpretation revealed three key subjects related to the critique of Eric's work: the customer, the designer, and the developer.
Each perspective offers a different view on the author’s work.
The sense of the customers is that they have been always saying this, and they don’t understand why developers and designers can’t just do that.
The feeling of the designer’s group is that the bad taste of customers or stakeholders always undermines their work, in addition to the creative limitations from the Naysayers development team who claim that it is impossible to do It other way.
The developer’s group pointed out that the overloaded design is due to the excessive information the customer or stake holders require for their business but it doesn’t affects the functionality, and if it is not pretty is because designers are lazy and unrealistic. However, all the developers said, “if it works, then don’t touch it”, and when is not working they say, “It works on my computer”.
01 - When you see it on Linkedin, the poster is trying to show the world he is better than the rest, feed himself with likes and validation from people who is trying to sell to.
02 - When you see it on Facebook Designer’s group, the user is desperate to get likes.
03 - When you see it on Facebook on the profile or the page of the designer or company. They are being passively aggressive with a customer who makes their design ugly.
04 - It has yet to be seen if developers will post this.
Whoever considers this satiric and hyper simplified meme as a valid argument in any discussion or something with any other purpose than making people laugh is definitively a silicon-head.
An Overloaded view as the result of a development process obey to the following facts:
“The Meme is pointing out a common situation that many people in the industry may feel related to and enjoy it. Is the pretentious overuse in social networks like LinkedIn trying to sell “expertise” and “knowledge” that have killed the spirit of the Meme which is to laugh and reflect of your work as professional.
Stop trying to look smart with memes"
Nobody wants to make ugly things or overloaded views (Excepting developers maybe). They are the result of the self-defense mechanisms of the three subjects who never found an agreement point, or confidence to speak their minds.
Invested hours on chat-gpt (paid version)
Surveys to the control groups:
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