Update:
Microsoft has an insatiable appetite for poor UI design, it seems. One more reason you should have taken my warning more seriously.
Hi fellow UI designers.
Some of you might have heard of the ongoing Chat Style Competition where Skype is trying to get UI designers submit their entries and win several prizes if their submissions get picked by a “team of experts.”
If you really love what you do, read carefully what follows. If you don’t, you can stop reading immediately.
As you might already know, Skype has upgraded their Mac client several weeks ago, and it takes no rocket scientists to notice how horrendous and borderline insulting the interface is. Too much white space, over-abundance of modal controls, inconsistent behaviors and intrusive ‘features’ (who gives an eff about the contacts I talked to two months ago??.)
However, instead of admitting that the UI is inherently flawed and hiring a good UI designer to fix it, they launched a ‘design contest’ to cover it up.
When we first launched our new Mac app, we were delighted to see so many custom styles emerge from the design community, so we thought we’d make it official.
Also reads as: When we first launched our new Mac app, we were surprised to see many custom styles emerge from the design community in an attempt to fix the crappy UI that we rolled out, so we thought we’d make it official hoping it goes unnoticed.
Their so-called “team of experts” could have spent some redesigning the current UI, and if they did so already, the chances that the winning designs would be any better are very measly.
Now some of you might be wondering why you should not answer their call, after all, it would benefit everyone, especially pixel junkies like many of us. Well, consider the following:
- UI design is serious business and we are making a living of it. We enjoy giving away free stuff because we love what we do, but that’s no reason to work Pro Bono for a for-profit organization. If you don’t get my point, try to convince Skype and Fring to make VOIP calls on both platforms before you decide which to pay.
- I would have given a blind eye to the bullet point above, did Skype admit their misstep and work to fix it first before letting customizers join in the fun. Painting a cracked wall won’t prevent it from falling down.
- Such design competitions are a disguised form of spec work; they transform design into a commodity with often subpar results. There is no way in hell any company would launch an engineering or accounting competition1. Yet, many are starting to consider this route when it comes to design in order to cut costs, and it seems to be working for them as long as there are some who care little about design as a serious career path. This only shows how much these companies look down upon design, as if their products weren’t enough a proof of that already.
If you care about your credibility and dignity as a designer, please, please spread the word, retweet, let others know. You will be few to read this, but your action can make all the difference.
Footnotes
- Thanks for pointing me out to the Netflix Prize, but the sole fact that this counter-example got mentioned several times is a good sign that there aren’t probably many instances of such competitions.
