Presentation Is Difficult

Presentation and UI design is an inherently difficult issue that is tough to "get right". When developers say, "Pffft, that's merely a presentation issue", an AlarmBellPhrase alarm goes off in the back of my neck.

It's difficult largely because it's the most visible aspect of most software products, and thus subject to the heaviest scrutiny. And I've had some pretty picky bosses over the years. Perhaps I should have learned to say "no" more often rather than ramp up the complexity for incremental improvements or subjective preferences. But saying "no" to those who sign your check is often not good for your career. Humans are superficial egotistical creatures for good or bad, and want the feeling that they are "good enough" to have a Rembrandt app.

It's also a problem that's difficult to apply direct logic to because one is dealing with human WetWare, which is not so well cataloged yet (at least not in a way digestible to most developers).

CategoryUserInterface, CategoryAsthetics?