I think it's just another case of language losing its meaning in certain contexts. In the case of front end web development it seems to mean 'flat with large well spaced fonts'. When terms are abused like this they quickly become terms of abuse. Give it another year and it will be an insult to call something beautiful because by that stage it will be clear that beautiful = early 2010s obsessively flat and minimal web design that everyone finds boring and pretentious now.
(As you can probably tell, I do not like this style at all)
The thing that really annoys me about it is that the word 'beautiful' has meaning to me. That meaning is such that it only applies in very few places. By taking that word and associating it with something as mundane as a bloody message box (in this example - there are plenty of others); It feels like a con. The credit the word 'beautiful' has built up is being used to try to raise the calibre of something completely ordinary. It makes the word and the thing it is describing both seem cheap. There's a lot to be said for calling a spade a spade.
Comments
I think it's just another case of language losing its meaning in certain contexts. In the case of front end web development it seems to mean 'flat with large well spaced fonts'. When terms are abused like this they quickly become terms of abuse. Give it another year and it will be an insult to call something beautiful because by that stage it will be clear that beautiful = early 2010s obsessively flat and minimal web design that everyone finds boring and pretentious now.
(As you can probably tell, I do not like this style at all)
The thing that really annoys me about it is that the word 'beautiful' has meaning to me. That meaning is such that it only applies in very few places. By taking that word and associating it with something as mundane as a bloody message box (in this example - there are plenty of others); It feels like a con. The credit the word 'beautiful' has built up is being used to try to raise the calibre of something completely ordinary. It makes the word and the thing it is describing both seem cheap. There's a lot to be said for calling a spade a spade.
It's marketing.