Why the Interface Designs You See on Social Media Don't Work
Have you ever scrolled through Pinterest and seen a striking, overproduced design that made you think:
How do you even get there? Who makes something like this? Does it actually work? Who is it for? Is it even viable?
If you're new to design, you've probably noticed on Dribbble, Behance, or Pinterest that some projects have incredibly polished, shiny, visually stunning interfaces. But what's really behind them? Why do they feel almost utopian, even for big tech companies?
Design, like interfaces, is meant to guide the eye, use the user's intuition, and solve logical problems.
The best interface isn't the one that looks the most impressive, it's the one that solves the problem best.
On social media, many freelancers and studios use the “wow” effect to grab attention and lead potential clients to their services.
Design isn't just about making things look nice.
An interface must have purpose and utility, it's not decoration.
Think of an AI-generated Pinterest house with a staircase that ends a meter above the floor. The staircase is there, but it doesn't work.
Why big tech and well-funded companies don't look like that
Many of the assets in those designs, like images, are made specifically for that one screen. These interfaces aren't built to handle variable content sizes, to be updated, or to load dynamically. They're just a single screen, a static shot made to present a concept.
If you had 40 different types of items and each needed an illustration and a background, that's 80 illustrations in a real product. That's a lot of time, money, and resources. It's not sustainable.
Even implementing just that one screen and adapting ten purely cosmetic features to mobile can make developers and founders think twice; it takes too much time. Without enough resources or time, cosmetic details are usually the first to be cut.
A product isn't a screenshot or just a design. It's usually 20 to 50 screens that require significant time, resources, design, and development, whether for an MVP or an established company.
The most important thing is the service and the content.
Design supports them, it improves the experience, creates engagement and retention, and builds muscle memory, but it's not the main reason someone stays or chooses a platform. The most used platforms are often those where users create the content. That content is unpredictable, no matter how much curation there is.
This is why companies often choose a more minimalist, “neutral” branding so the content stands out.
A note:
It's fine to design with custom, well-thought-out assets. But it's important to think about the opportunity cost and the brand's needs.
This doesn't mean you should design like a Soviet architect.
We all want identity. Design isn't just about effective flows, we want the experience to be comfortable and, even if it's a bit contradictory, visually pleasing. We all want to show the best parts of a project.
This is about avoiding the trap of overthinking designs and ending up with projects that can't be sustained.