People keep asking about the name. They say why would you call yourselves Ugly Computer? Isn't that bad marketing?
Maybe. But it's honest.
The Problem with Polish
The App Store is full of beautifully polished apps that all look the same. Perfectly rounded corners, the exact same shade of blue, the same onboarding patterns, the same growth-hacked notification strategies. They're optimized for screenshots and venture capital pitch decks.
And they're boring.
More importantly, all that polish comes at a cost. Features get cut because they don't fit the aesthetic. Weird ideas get smoothed out in committee meetings. The interesting edges get filed down until you're left with something inoffensive and forgettable.
Embracing the Weird
We called ourselves Ugly Computer because we wanted to give ourselves permission to build weird things. To ship ideas that aren't quite polished. To prioritize function over form. To make apps that some people will hate and other people will love, rather than apps that everyone will tolerate.
"Ugly" is a reminder that not everything needs to be perfect. Sometimes the best ideas are the rough ones. Sometimes the most useful tools are the ones that look a little janky but solve a real problem.
What Ugly Means to Us
Ugly doesn't mean badly designed. It means opinionated. It means willing to be different. It means shipping something that works even if it's not quite ready for a design award.
Our apps will have strong points of view. They'll make choices that not everyone will agree with. They won't try to be everything to everyone. And they definitely won't look like every other app in the store.
Some people will think that's ugly. We think it's beautiful.
Lower East Side Energy
We're based on Delancey Street in the Lower East Side, a neighborhood that's always been a little rough around the edges. This area has never been the polished, sanitized version of New York—it's the weird, scrappy, make-it-work version.
That's the energy we want in our software. Not the version that goes through focus groups. The version that ships.
So yeah, we're Ugly Computer. And we're fine with that.
— Robert