I’m old enough to remember the first laser printers (and the Apple ImageWriter). Before laser printers typists and computer users didn’t have to worry about what font to use. They generally only had one option (usually Courier). With the advent of laser printers they were free to choose from a number of fonts, and font sizes! The result was often ugly.

Emboldened with this new typographical freedom, one-page newsletters would often have 12 fonts – with italics, bold and underlined text. Some were so bad you could hardly read the messages. Why did people create these abominations? Because they could. Fortunately with time, common sense returned (a bit) and real design took over, and many wonderful, but simple, newsletters were created.

Then came the World Wide Web. The first web pages had plain text on a silver background, with perhaps a few low-resolution, 64 color images. They were very simple, yet succeeded in conveying the intended message. But as connection speeds increased (56K modems instead of 14.4K modems), and HTML “advanced,” those simple pages gave way to multiple fonts, background images, and blinking text. Again, with time, design sense prevailed (on many sites), and the background images and blinking text became a thing of the past.

Now we are in the midst of Web 2.0. While many remember the lessons learned in prior implementations, too many have gone crazy with the seemingly endless possibilities. Web services and applications are being mashed up left and right, creating frankenstein monster web applications that have no reason to exist, other than the creators found out that they could.

Real design is about accomplishing a purpose, solving a problem, or enhancing an experience. Design is not about seeing how many cool widgets, APIs, or RIAs can be forced on a user. Fortunately, we have many new and exciting tools that we can use to create better, more enabling designs. Many web applications are very exciting, and empowering. But, these new tools and technologies should be used wisely. Good design is purposeful and enlightening, not overpowering. Remember, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.