I get why new for new's sake isn't always good, but still, it can't hurt to change things up a bit.

You're talking about the ransom note font. I'll bet you can find one to install and use (under CC) for your own entertainment. In fact, I know you can.

By worst, I mean literally making people ill.

I don't have anything against new for the sake of new, sometimes (albeit rarely) that can lead to improvements. But more commonly, having to learn a new interface just for glitter is counterproductive. Remember when web pages first came out and so many people would just throw in every whiz-bang eye candy? The blowback surely must have primed people for the simplicity of google. (CNBC has been playing the Mind Of Google show over and over, which includes a segment recalling initial internal users staring at the screen waiting for it to finish loading lol).

My first thought looking at all the fourface skins was “where's the one that looks like every word was cut out of a different magazine?” (btw, one of the least legible skins is a customer of the manufacturing company I work for.)

Enterprise app developers offer one UI b/c that's the one that is supported. Offer more UIs, compound your support costs. So, they have less leeway in that regard. Demanding alternate UIs boils down to changing a skin, applying a CSS, etc. Maybe an alternate, but not a different UI.

The different UIs discussed in the Foursquare/Fourface examples above answer different questions, i.e. (a) tell me about a specific location, (b) tell me about the closest locations, and (c) tell me about locations that I've visited before.

The difficulty for a developer, or even a bunch of third-party developers using an API, is that it's difficult to identify the potential billions of ways in which a product may be used. And once you identify alternatives, you have to decide whether you want to spend time developing and supporting them, or whether you just want to create one UI and say “This is the only way to do it.”

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I would think that developers of enterprise applications would have more leeway in offering alternative UIs than developers of consumer applications. In fact, enterprise customers may DEMAND alternative UIs – IBM may pay big bucks for a blue-tinted background, while Oracle may pay big bucks for a red-tinted background.

I get why new for new's sake isn't always good, but still, it can't hurt to change things up a bit.

You're talking about the ransom note font. I'll bet you can find one to install and use (under CC) for your own entertainment. In fact, I know you can.

By worst, I mean literally making people ill.

I don't have anything against new for the sake of new, sometimes (albeit rarely) that can lead to improvements. But more commonly, having to learn a new interface just for glitter is counterproductive. Remember when web pages first came out and so many people would just throw in every whiz-bang eye candy? The blowback surely must have primed people for the simplicity of google. (CNBC has been playing the Mind Of Google show over and over, which includes a segment recalling initial internal users staring at the screen waiting for it to finish loading lol).

My first thought looking at all the fourface skins was “where's the one that looks like every word was cut out of a different magazine?” (btw, one of the least legible skins is a customer of the manufacturing company I work for.)

Enterprise app developers offer one UI b/c that's the one that is supported. Offer more UIs, compound your support costs. So, they have less leeway in that regard. Demanding alternate UIs boils down to changing a skin, applying a CSS, etc. Maybe an alternate, but not a different UI.

The different UIs discussed in the Foursquare/Fourface examples above answer different questions, i.e. (a) tell me about a specific location, (b) tell me about the closest locations, and (c) tell me about locations that I've visited before.

The difficulty for a developer, or even a bunch of third-party developers using an API, is that it's difficult to identify the potential billions of ways in which a product may be used. And once you identify alternatives, you have to decide whether you want to spend time developing and supporting them, or whether you just want to create one UI and say “This is the only way to do it.”

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I would think that developers of enterprise applications would have more leeway in offering alternative UIs than developers of consumer applications. In fact, enterprise customers may DEMAND alternative UIs – IBM may pay big bucks for a blue-tinted background, while Oracle may pay big bucks for a red-tinted background.

I did notice the Pussy Palace too. Not sure if that's a strip joint or a cheeky name, don't plan to investigate

I think any interface that makes you spin on your head to read it is just a joke. “Let's stand him on his head! Aww, he's no fun, he fell right over.” – Firesign Theater, predicting bad user interfaces since the '60s.