A dearly departed friend of mine -- WAY better versed in UI or UX than I was at the time -- said something rather strange about design. It's something of a head scratcher when you first hear it, but the more you think about it, the more "right" it seems.

"The best design is one the user doesn't notice!"

Sounds odd, doesn't it? But it's correct. When designing a UI anything you that detracts from what the user is there to do, or what you want them to do, is exactly that. A distraction.

Amazon is a great example for this. Look a ttheir layout. They sell products, what do you get landing on their site? A search bar, a categories selector, and some PRODUCTS. No marketing spiel, no artsy-fartsy excess crap, no ego stroking for the developers or designers. Just BOOM, here stuff is.

Craigslist is an even better example. Utterly devoid of any artsy fartsy crap, it quickly and simply presents what the user is looking for. No more, no less.

There is a habit amongst marketers and those pesky artists under the DELUSION they know what design is, where they seem obsessed with the idea that they have to "yell louder than the other guy" with their art, animations, and other such nonsense. We saw this when skeuomorphism had its heyday. Everyone was screaming so loud with their graphics to "pay attention to me! No, to me!!!" that nobody could actually be heard. "The audience is now deaf". It CREATED the entire concept of "ad blindness" to the point users were ignoring CTA's thinking they were adverts!

And in this room full of people screaming at the top of their lungs with their bling bling art, Apple stepped in with a whisper, and everybody's head turned.

Flat design. The pinnacle of "less is more". A trend we all should continue to try and embrace. It got everyone's attention by being simple, effective, and "quieter" than the competition.

I don't even like crApple. I could go on for hours about what a bunch of disreputable dishonest dirtbags they are. But you have to stand in rock-star awe of their design and marketing teams when Jobbo was in charge.

And it's why it's so sad seeing their current leadership wetting their own bed undoing all that.