function and artistic expression

[cellio]

I don't really think of myself as a Phillistine (culturally speaking), but I think my views on art and function are more conservative than those of some of the people around me.

When they redesigned US paper money a few years back, a lot of people thought the results were much prettier than before. But usability for me went way down, because I found the font they used for the numbers on the front to be illegible, and I could no longer tell whether I was holding a 10 or a 20 without looking at the back. This is a nuisance when digging through a wallet. And I can't believe that it wasn't at least a little harder even for people with good vision. So to me the new peach 20s are a major improvement, at least for now. We'll see what happens when they do the 10s.

I've heard some people critique the new peach bills in various ways, liking the treatment of the background or disliking some aspect of the portrait or the like. And I'm sure the government spent an amount several times my annual income on the artistic aspects of the bill (as opposed to the anti-counterfeiting aspects). But c'mon, it's just money! I'd rather have pretty money than ugly money all other things being equal, but I really don't care. Its job is to live in my wallet until I want to exchange it for goods or services. And as soon as the art gets in the way of that function, I get annoyed.

Take, for example, the new quarters. There are now 51 different versions of the quarter. If I pull a quarter out of my pocket and I'm looking at the back, I can't tell what coin I'm holding. It's probably a US quarter, but for all I know it's an SBA or a Canadian coin or something else wonky that showed up in the change from the store. I have to flip it over and look at the front to know -- all in the name of art, because having one design instead of 51 was boring or something. I want the old quarters back because the new ones introduced a bug without a corresponding feature. Some think the new art is a feature, of course, but my vision isn't good enough to appreciate that -- and even if it were, it still interferes with function.

So now they're redesinging the nickel. Fortunately there will only be two or three versions in circulation, rather than 51, but I still have to ask why. Was the old one broken? I haven't heard anyone make that argument. The old one wasn't even ugly! (At least the nickel starts out less ambiguous than the quarter does.)

Lots of software chooses art over usability, whether it's graphics, fonts, weird command sequences, inconsistent behavior, or the like. (You also see this in a lot of web sites, of course.) I've pretty much given up there; the software world seems to prefer the notion that art is allowed to prevent function. But I'm frustrated when I see that approach migrate into my world at large.

Again, I'm all for art -- in appropriate venues. But basic functionality has to come first. If I'm standing at the parking meter and can't tell effortlessly what coin I'm holding, I don't give a damn if it's pretty.

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

redesigning the nickel? how?

[vonstrassburg.livejournal.com]

I have to say that USA currency is the least useful in the world.

Nowhere on your quarters does it contain the words "25 cents". Nowhere on your dimes does it contain the words "10 cents" or even the number 10 at all. You'd have to be born there or reasonably familiar with your money in the first place to figure out what those coins are for.

Added to that, all of your money is the same colour. It's not very useful at all, especially that wallets there can get very crowded with $1 notes fairly quickly.

[goljerp]

My feelings about the paper money: if they were going to redesign it, they should've at least made it not look horribly ugly. The new 20s are only slightly less horrible than the old ones, IMHO.

Quarters: I suspect that the real reason for all the backs is to spur coin collecting. There isn't as big an incentive to get people to collect coins as there is to get people to collect stamps (you get people to pay for a service but never actually have to deliver it), but there are some of the same factors at play. I also dislike the 50-state designs. Just a minor nipick, though: it's not 51 quarters, it's 52 - there are still some 1976 quarters around.

Nickel redesign: I'll have to see what it's like.

American coinage is pretty screwy

Value:
penny < nickel < dime < quarter < sac $ = SBA $

size:
sac $ = SBA $ =? quarter > nickel > penny > dime

color:
SBA $ = quarter = nickel = dime != penny =? sac $

And then there's the actual markings on the coinage.

penny says "ONE CENT" on it
nickel says "FIVE CENTS" on it in fairly small lettering
so someone who isn't familiar with our coinage might have some difficulty realizing a penny is "ONE CENT" and a nickel is "FIVE CENTS", and a cent is 1/100th of a dollar, but at least things are farily logical so far.
dime says "ONE DIME". Terrific. What is that in relationship to a "CENT"? A dollar? At least its common name is on it.
quarter says "QUARTER DOLLAR". What is that in CENTs? DIMEs?

None of these coins have numerals indicating their value. The terminology is not uniform, and the sizes are wacky.

Goljerp's solution:
1. get rid of the penny. They're worth nothing anyhow.
2. get rid of the dollar bill - switch entirely to dollar coins
3. radical redesign of coinage: make the size of the coin reflect the value. Since none of our coins are pure silver/nickel/copper/etc. anymore anyhow, let's make the sizes reasonable
4. numerals are friendly. Put 'em on the coins.
5. while we're redesigning the sizes of the coins, make a dollar coin which is not almost the same size as a quarter. The Sacagawea coin at least is a different color than a quarter, but that's not enough. (Actually, I just looked at the US Mint web site - they didn't have that much choice as to the size.

Yes, the vending machine companies will have to redo everything. They'll deal, just like they've dealt with the new bills.

Ugh. I've rambled enough. Now I must sleep.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

There is an art to being gracefully functional, or, in other words,I agree with you!

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

There are actually 52 quarter designs that will be in circulation by the time the state quarters are all minted. I still get the ocassional 1976 "bicentennial" quarter with the drummer on the back instead of the eagle.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I could no longer tell whether I was holding a 10 or a 20 without looking at the back. This is a nuisance when digging through a wallet. And I can't believe that it wasn't at least a little harder even for people with good vision.

I don't have good vision, and I can say in all honesty that I had no problem telling the difference between 10s and 20s when the new bills came out. That said, I understand why you had the difficulty, but I have no difficulty believing that others did not have this issue.

If I pull a quarter out of my pocket and I'm looking at the back, I can't tell what coin I'm holding. It's probably a US quarter, but for all I know it's an SBA or a Canadian coin or something else wonky that showed up in the change from the store.

I can tell the difference by feel and weight 99% of the time. I don't know that I even look at coins unless I'm interested in what's on them.

All that said, you know that I'm not a big fan of the changes to the money, though I understand the reasons it has to happen. But I guess the longer I've debated the issue (in my own journal and elsewhere), the more I've found peace with the changes.