That red techshell is looking mighty appealing
…only because a red macbook would look slick.
Looking at the techshell web site, I realized that they don’t have a designer. So, there’s always been this “tension” between artist students and engineer students (you know what I’m talking about…) and there are some engineers who understand ui, aesthetics, and “look and feel”, but generally not as well as someone who is trained this field. Techshell would benefit a great deal from a good designer. There is about 50px of wasted space at the top of the site, the background is really dark which makes the page seem closed and squishy. There’s not much text on the home page, yet it’s tiny, and every link I click opens a new window (my personal pet peeve). Since they sell mac accessories, the site should look cleaner and more open (like the apple site).
More pertinent to the product itself, they expanded their line by adding new designs. I remember looking at the rose design and thinking it was cheesy. It was a repeating rose pattern over a white background; it looked like cheap wallpaper. The strawberry design will give you an idea of what I’m talking about. It looks like, well, like a geek picked out some patterns he though girls would like.
I’m not trying to be mean; It’s just that designers are sometimes undervalued. The solid-colored shells are awesome. It’ll be a while before I get one if I do. They don’t have shells for the 17” yet and I’m still debating whether or not it’s worth dropping $100+ on it. I wonder if I can expense it…
January 1st, 2001 at 12:00 am
I think that many good programmers, because they are good at coding and getting the product “done”, never stop to analyze and come to terms with the fact that they aren’t good at everything. the hardest thing is to realize what you are not good at. engineers like to think they are good at everything. thus, they do the UI themselves and it ends up sucking. instead, they should hire a ui designer and graphic artist to do site design, logos, etc.
UI people are awesome. but they don’t get much loving.
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:07 pm
The strawberry design will give you an idea of what I’m talking about. It looks like, well, like a geek picked out some patterns he though girls would like.
This reminds me of the early iMacs which had similarly nasty designs like daisies all over them.
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:46 pm
“engineers like to think they are good at everything”
unfortunately, it’s not just engineers. We should all give more lovin’ to our ui people.
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
i don’t remember those, but they sound awful
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I just read that smugmug totally revamped their site. What do you think of it? How do you like it compared to the old one?
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Thank you for your honest opinion. We are always open to any idea to improve our web site and product design. Please e-mail us info@techshell.com.
January 26th, 2007 at 6:31 pm