That Dribbble shot with 800 likes but zero thought behind it

I saw a design on Dribbble this morning that had like 800 saves but it was basically just a pretty button with no context. No user flow, no accessibility check, just a gradient and some nice shadows. It got me thinking how much of the stuff we upvote is just eye candy with zero practical use. I worked on a dashboard redesign last month and spent more time on the spacing and contrast than on making it look flashy. Has anyone else noticed the gap between what gets popular and what actually works in real projects?

2 comments

2 Comments

jennifer_fisher4d ago

Does anyone else feel personally attacked when they see those because I definitely have a folder of them from my early design days? I thought I was a design genius when I made a super glossy weather app icon that got like 50 likes. Then I actually tried to use that gradient on a real project and it looked terrible on an actual screen with text over it. The contrast ratios were probably a crime against humanity. The worst part is that those flashy shots get all the attention while the boring stuff like proper spacing and accessible color palettes gets ignored. I spent a whole week once just aligning a form and checking my hover states against WCAG standards and got zero claps for it. It is kind of like that feeling when you spend hours making a perfect sourdough starter and your friend shows up with a box of store brand cookies and everyone loves those more. Not that I am bitter about it or anything.

charles_henderson2d ago

200 likes on a weather app icon? That's like getting a participation trophy. @jennifer_fisher it's just design porn folks scroll past. Who cares if it wins a popularity contest.