I love the Star Trek panel look of this design, with the lines in the bottom left and top left mimicking circuitry. The liberal use of space, even at the cost of text size, gives an open, inviting feeling, as opposed to a page in which every space is crammed with text. The high contrast immediately grabs the eye. I would call the design simplistic, but it’s really not. It’s masterfully advanced. It’s not quite minimalistic either, though that’s a closer word, as every line is there for a purpose and adds to the overall cohesion. I think the right word is clean.

A beautiful interface. It reminds me of Ayn Rand’s the Fountainhead, in which the protagonist, Howard Roark, describes his philosophy in architecture: “Everything is there for a reason.” No facades, no useless decorations. The purpose is to empower the user. This is accomplished through familiar metaphors, an intuitive layout, plenty of breathing room, a controlled but powerful use of color, and a cleanness that invokes a peaceful feng shui.

I wanted to add one more design to this post. After skimming a lot of images, my eyes kept rolling back to this one. That goes to show the power of a face, especially an interesting face. His face tells a story. Why the bemused expression? What does he know that I don’t know? Cropping him like this was a bold move, and I probably would have been too shy to do so. But it was a good choice in that, (1) the seeming off balance creates a sense of uneasiness. Conflict is good in peaking my curiosity, which is drawn to that orange button. The uneasiness is amplified in the hard, steel title with no breathing room (leading). The word choice is also intriguing. This design has got to convert well.