unpopular opinion but people get "taste" wrong.
taste isn't knowing what looks good. everyone knows what looks good.
Ira Glass said it best, "all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. but there's a gap, for the first couple years, what you're making isn't so good."
what he meant is that, taste isn't about knowing what's right.
taste is knowing what's wrong; even when everything on the surface looks perfect.
they'll look at a technically flawless screen and say "something's off." the hierarchy is fighting the user's intent. the design is beautiful but dishonest.
it's called the "aesthetic-usability effect," users assume beautiful interfaces work better, even when they don't. people with real taste know this trap and refuse to let beauty hide bad decisions.
taste isn't knowing what looks good; it's knowing what's wrong.
ALT The image features highlighted text of a quote by Ira Glass discussing the gap between taste and creative work in beginners.