There is something very satisfying about the transparency of good design; when a website or online tool is so well designed it becomes seemingly invisible to the user. Tools that become the extension of your mind, hands and eyes, helping you make decisions without you really formulating them, yet still commanding a powerful presence through their personality, essence and lack of frivolous and detouring. Emily Chang’s recent blog entry on Design 2.0: Minimalism, Transparency, and You and the eHub Interviews are both a good read on design philosophy among Web 2.0 companies.

Using tools like Basecamp and Backpack (from 37Signals) has become refreshingly synonymous with my personal experience of walking up to Leonida’s Cafe in the morning, where they start making my single latte before I even push open the glass door and take those first few sluggish steps to the counter.

I am not sure why “designing for the masses” has always been about visually yelling at people — often incoherently. Oh, the guy on the street… he’s afraid of “subtle”, fine design, they say. We need to speak clearly. Yet here we are preaching cleaner lines and Swiss grids like the true inner Euro-trash we really are. How transparent can we get? The day when the visual design seemingly disappears and the product becomes truly intuitive and effortless… that’s the day when the user and content truly become king.