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← People and their mental models

Sebastiaan de With's mental models

4 claims Sebastiaan de With made fit 3 mental models. Most often: Design is how it works, Conventions (Jakob's law), Less, but better. Everything they said here.

Models they name

Their own words name the idea.

Conventions (Jakob's law)

People bring what they learned on every other product, so familiar patterns usually win over novel ones.

Used by 5 others

Given a complicated premise, the best thing a designer can do is stick to a conventional design and let the features surprise and delight.

  1. Sebastiaan de With Designer and co-founder of Lux, makers of Halide But given the already complicated premise of long exposure photography, the best possible thing we could do — and as a designer this is hard to admit — was to stick to a fairly conventional design and let the actual features surprise and delight. A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera · 11 Apr 2019
    Their wordsBut given the already complicated premise of long exposure photography, the best possible thing we could do — and as a designer this is hard to admit — was to stick to a fairly conventional design and let the actual features surprise and delight.

    ↗A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera

    11 Apr 2019

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

Design is how it works

Judge a design by what it does for the person using it, not only by how it looks.

Used by 26 others

You know a design is great when it disappears: a superb typeface, good signage or a well-designed door handle is never noticed, only the absence of frustration.

  1. Sebastiaan de With Designer and co-founder of Lux, makers of Halide When you come across an article set in a superb typeface for reading, some excellent airport signage or a well designed door handle, you don’t think about it or even notice it. If anything you might just notice being happier, or simply not frustrated. That’s how you know a design is great: it disappears. A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera · 11 Apr 2019
    Their wordsWhen you come across an article set in a superb typeface for reading, some excellent airport signage or a well designed door handle, you don’t think about it or even notice it. If anything you might just notice being happier, or simply not frustrated. That’s how you know a design is great: it disappears.

    ↗A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera

    11 Apr 2019

Interfaces are returning to skeuomorphism, but as behaviour rather than lacquer: clear, graphic elements that act like materials from the real world.

  1. Sebastiaan de With Designer and co-founder of Lux, makers of Halide We’ve come back, in a sense, to skeuomorphic interfaces — but this time not with a lacquer resembling a material. Instead, the interface is clear, graphic and behaves like things we know from the real world, or might exist in the world. This is what the new skeuomorphism is. It, too, is physicality. Physicality: the new age of UIlux.camera · 3 Jun 2025
    Their wordsWe’ve come back, in a sense, to skeuomorphic interfaces — but this time not with a lacquer resembling a material. Instead, the interface is clear, graphic and behaves like things we know from the real world, or might exist in the world. This is what the new skeuomorphism is. It, too, is physicality.

    ↗Physicality: the new age of UIlux.camera

    3 Jun 2025

Less, but better

Find the essence and cut the rest; simplicity is hard work, not the absence of effort.

Used by 61 others

The most important thing a designer can do to make new technology usable is to simplify, and sometimes fewer features make a better product.

  1. Sebastiaan de With Designer and co-founder of Lux, makers of Halide The most important thing you can do as a designer to make great new technology usable is to simplify. A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera · 11 Apr 2019
    Their wordsThe most important thing you can do as a designer to make great new technology usable is to simplify.

    ↗A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera

    11 Apr 2019