The Claude aesthetic

Naturally I clicked into The Listening Museum when I saw it in Kottke’s feed. “36 mechanical keyboards and switches, curated and sound-mapped. From IBM Model M (1985) to Topre to thocky modern customs. Click any card, type on your real keyboard, hear it as if it were on your desk.”

I clacked a few clacks and felt some solid Obama-not-bad vibes.

But what stuck with me most was one of the comments:

Ok, admittedly a great concept and super satisfying to play with.

However, god am I so burnt out on the Claude website aesthetic. It’s flattening the visual web experience. All the obvious tells like the “dot with tiny all caps labels”, and the one emphasized word in italics in headlines and the beige background.

A site like this would feel so much more… real?… if it had any sort of human design point-of-view. As is though, these sites all feel devoid of soul.

While my site doesn’t do those specific things (dot with tiny all-caps, etc.), it does feel flat. And it uses a vaguely similar color scheme to some of those Claude sites.

This has me wondering about giving my site a greater dose of human funk. Alas, as I’ve said a few times before, I’m bad and slow at web design, and therefore wary of burning time on it.

So for now, I’ll just keep wondering. Later, though, I may impulsively launch a foolhardy redesign. Stay frosty.