<story><title>DBeaver – open-source database client</title><url>https://github.com/dbeaver/dbeaver</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>worble</author><text>I find it absolutely baffling how often the prettiness of UI comes up as a HN comment.&lt;p&gt;If you asked me objectively &amp;quot;do you think it&amp;#x27;s pretty?&amp;quot; I&amp;#x27;d probably say no, but never once has this even occurred me when using it since I&amp;#x27;m usually just trying to get work done, which I find it very useful for. It&amp;#x27;s a productivity tool, not an art piece I&amp;#x27;m hanging on my wall.</text></item><item><author>dfee</author><text>I don’t know why it matters to me, but I’ve always been put off by it being ugly and using non-native widgets. That may be the only reason I’ve paid for TablePlus.&lt;p&gt;I’d probably be fine with a great TUI interface, too. So it’s really this intermediate UI that irritates me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JohnBooty</author><text>I think it&amp;#x27;s less about aesthetics and more about cognitive load.&lt;p&gt;Nonstandard UIs aren&amp;#x27;t end of the world, but &lt;i&gt;if possible&lt;/i&gt; I don&amp;#x27;t want the extra cognitive load of interacting with 5, 6, 7, whatever slightly different GUI paradigms.&lt;p&gt;Like most developers I&amp;#x27;m using multiple applications at once. Typically I&amp;#x27;m using a terminal, text editor, browser, Slack, email, and maybe a database GUI.&lt;p&gt;A developer&amp;#x27;s cognition and cognitive load are limiting factors. Increase my cognitive load by X% and there is going to be a Y% increase in how long it takes me to do something and&amp;#x2F;or a Z% decrease in the quality of the work. Even if X% is small, it adds up pretty quickly. After all if we are employed full time that is 2,000+ hours per year of work.&lt;p&gt;Again, not just aesthetics. It&amp;#x27;s little things like, &amp;quot;does this software support the standard keyboard shortcuts for my system?&amp;quot;  If CMD+W closes a window in every app &lt;i&gt;except one&lt;/i&gt; that&amp;#x27;s kind of a pain. Etc.</text></comment>
<story><title>DBeaver – open-source database client</title><url>https://github.com/dbeaver/dbeaver</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>worble</author><text>I find it absolutely baffling how often the prettiness of UI comes up as a HN comment.&lt;p&gt;If you asked me objectively &amp;quot;do you think it&amp;#x27;s pretty?&amp;quot; I&amp;#x27;d probably say no, but never once has this even occurred me when using it since I&amp;#x27;m usually just trying to get work done, which I find it very useful for. It&amp;#x27;s a productivity tool, not an art piece I&amp;#x27;m hanging on my wall.</text></item><item><author>dfee</author><text>I don’t know why it matters to me, but I’ve always been put off by it being ugly and using non-native widgets. That may be the only reason I’ve paid for TablePlus.&lt;p&gt;I’d probably be fine with a great TUI interface, too. So it’s really this intermediate UI that irritates me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>al_borland</author><text>Some applications are designed so well, it makes me look for excuses to use them. Other times the good UI makes it faster and easier to get the job done. An ugly UI makes me less likely to want to use an application, and a bad&amp;#x2F;confusing one makes it harder for me to get the job done, especially if it’s used infrequently.&lt;p&gt;UI and UX does matter, even when talking about productivity software.&lt;p&gt;There can also be an element of inspiration and influence. If all my tools are well designed, I’m more likely to set a high bar for whatever I’m building. If I’m using ugly and poorly designed tool. The bar for whatever I’m making will likely drop to the environment I’m around.</text></comment>