Thread

1. HanShotFirst · 1789588770 · focus · HN ↗

   I've noticed a very sudden uptick in these AI designed signs and menus in my area. I fully understand why they are used by small business owners (fast and cheap), and I think getting angry at or threatening a business owner for using them is a huge overreaction.

   That said, my own aesthetic sense is very much turned off by them. It is hard for me to articulate why, but I can name four reasons:

   - The food never actually looks good, real, or delicious;

   - The information is presented in a haphazard way, with text randomly thrown all over the place;

   - There is really only one kind of "style" of these signs that I've seen, and it's sad to think that this style (or lack thereof) may become ubiquitous;

   - In a world where AI feels increasingly shoved down our throats, it is unnerving to so suddenly see its rise manifested in the physical world.

   1. vidarh · 1789595210 · focus · HN ↗

      There are multiple widely replicated common crappy menu styles already. If anything AI generated menus are likely to lift the quality floor.

      I recall in particular when I first moved to London and realised you could identify low quality Italian restaurants by whether they had the same laminated plastic dessert menu from some distributor of ready made desserts... The step up was when they'd cut and pasted parts of that menu design into their own template...

      And keep in mind we notice the bad examples, because they stand out. They'll fade out of public consciousness as people get better at getting better output out of them, but they're not likely to disappear - menus have clearly been a low priority for a certain subset of places pretty much forever.

      If anything, it reliably signals "cheap".

      1. summermusic · 1789740923 · focus · HN ↗

         > If anything AI generated menus are likely to lift the quality floor.

         The consensus among my peers and clearly the people in this article is that badly-designed or templated menus are perceived to be of higher quality than AI-generated menus. This is clearly not universal as business owners obviously don't seem to mind, but business owners are not especially known for having good taste in design and those of us who do find these AI menus atrocious.

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