My friend, the photographer Paul Clarke has an uncanny eye for detail. Every single shot he publishes is beautiful - they capture life in a way that I

Most people don't care about quality

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2024-12-30 13:30:04

My friend, the photographer Paul Clarke has an uncanny eye for detail. Every single shot he publishes is beautiful - they capture life in a way that I don't have the language to describe. I'm quite content to point my phone at someone, use the default settings, and grab a snap. My photos lack composition, clarity, focus, mise-en-scène, proper lighting and a thousand-and-one details that I've never even thought of.

Paul has published an essay about official photographs of politicians. In it, he expertly points out the various deficiencies of some of them and where they show a distinct lack of quality.

If you're a website designer, you're always noticing "jank" on other sites. Your skin crawls at the poor kerning, the FOUT, the lack of keyboard navigation, improper contrast ratio, and a dozen other flaws. 99% of users just don't care. It doesn't impact them in any meaningful way.

A decade ago, I ranted about how designers were chasing a perfection which would never be noticed by non-experts. You may take pride in your craft, but the majority of people physically cannot notice the difference between good and bad design. Not even subconsciously.

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