What does "brutalism" actually mean?
Anyone who visits hip websites and wonders why navigation is made so difficult and big, bold words scream at you doesn't understand what's going on in UI/UX design. Brutalism is what it's called, and what it means is not designing "grad z'leid" websites the way the common user has just learned to do. Gone are the days [...]
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Anyone who visits hip websites and wonders why navigation is made so difficult and big, bold words are shouted at them doesn't understand what's going on in UI/UX design. Brutalism is the name of the game, and it means not designing "just sorry" websites the way the average user has just learned. Gone are the days of horizontal or vertical navigation, and even hamburgers are something of a noughties design. Brutalism or "brutal design" is full of raw interactions paired with micro-interactions that deliberately break with our viewing habits. So no more user-friendliness! Hello, creative courage and resistance to user habits.Design concrete mixers are in demand
Whereas marketing used to be "brick & mortar vs. online", i.e. the real world vs. the digital world, today it is called omni-channel marketing. Digital and analog must work together. Perhaps this is why the UI/UX community used a somewhat outdated word from the analog world: brutalism. In architecture, it was once either celebrated as a model of modern architecture or labeled as a concrete bunker. No wonder, as the term is derived from this very building material: "béton brut", or exposed concrete. The pioneer of this style is Le Corbusier, whose late work from 1947 onwards permanently changed the cityscape of Marseille with his gray housing blocks Unité d'Habitation and thus cemented the way for a new architectural style. UI/UX designers, on the other hand, rely on simple navigation in their interpretation of Brutalism and turn hand-coded HTML into digital concrete. Let's hope that the online Le Corbusiers adopt not only his non-conformism and his willingness to experiment but also his ingenuity. Then perhaps the users of such websites will accept the associated inconvenience - with respect for the art.* Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He has been eavesdropping on the industry for over 30 years, discovering words and terms for us that can either be used for small talk, pomposity, excitement, playing Scrabble, or just because. The post What does "brutalism" actually mean? appeared first on Advertising week m&k.
