GODZILLA VERSUS GODZILLA

A Word About Unsolicited Redesigns

cameronmoll:

Khoi Vinh, former design director for NYTimes.com:

Unsolicited redesigns are terrific and fun and useful, and I hope designers never stop doing them. But as they do so, I also hope they remember it helps no one — least of all the author of the redesign — to assume the worst about the original source and the people who work hard to maintain and improve it, even though those efforts may seem imperfect from the outside. If you have good ideas and the talent to execute them and argue for them, the world will still sit up and pay attention even if you take care in your language and show respect to those who don’t see things quite the way you do.

Consider this my public apology for so quickly embracing one side of the argument and failing to contemplate the other.

Update: Some of you are suggesting I shouldn’t apologize. Aside from that being a matter of my own choosing, I believe we sell ourselves short if we consider only one side of an argument, especially in matters of design and UX. I’m fortunate to know both Khoi and Andy quite well, and to fail to consider both their opinions — very experienced opinions, at that — would not be fair to them nor to myself.