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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Usability trumps design every time.

HN is a nice example. Imagine if you let a designer loose on it, the disaster that would ensue. It would be eye candy for sure, but we'd all be leaving in a hurry.

Especially for stuff that is used frequently less design is usually better, 'b(l)ing' is for kids with too much money to spend on their cars. Tools have to be functional first.

They can aesthetically pleasing, but only if the form follows from the function they have. Once you can't remove stuff any more the design is optimal.

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Imagine if you let a designer loose on it, the disaster that would ensue.

No. Or that is, it depends on the designer. I'd think most of the better designers would keep it clean.

>"Once you can't remove stuff any more the design is optimal."

That's when the design is minimal, not necessarily optimal.

Optimal is subjective: optimal for whom, performing what operation?

Having been on HN for a couple of years now (yes I've changed accounts - part of an experiment in aggressive commenting) I find that collapsible threads a la reddit seem to be really missing. There are other things I think reddit does more optimally too - like providing hints on formatting with one click (and no page change) of the post. I could go on (and on) but you get the idea.

I don't think User Experience is HN's top priority.

I read HN despite its design and usability, not because of it. Sure a bad designer would make it worse, but I think a great designer could do wonders for HN.

That's only because you're created a straw-man definition of design. Don't buy the hype: design is about influencing the subjective state of the audience. Sure, beauty is one kind of experience, and maybe it gets a lot of attention, but it's certainly not the only thing designers care about.

I think the main skill that designers bring to the table is empathy. Unlike traditional artists, who can safely ignore what other people think, designers have to be interested in how something feels to their audience. This is important if you're building things for people who aren't like you and don't think like you, and you want to get their attention, get them to think what they're buying is useful and usable and yes, maybe beautiful if that matters, and the people who made it are trustworthy and reliable.

Design is about communication--it's a kind of language. Who could argue that words don't matter, only function matters?

It's like code. A good, experienced coder writes simple code that does the job.

A talented but inexperienced coder will write a meta-framework platform that will do the job, but be hard to use.

A good designer with lots of experience should be able to make a slick, but minimalistic, design.

I think the main skill that designers bring to the table is empathy.

How do business results show the benefits of empathy?

This seems kind of obvious, but OK. How do you know what a customer needs? How do you know whether your idea meets that need? You have to look at the world from their perspective begin to answer those questions.

Follow-up question here, as I have just come from attending a focus group this evening. Is what you describe a typical part of the job description of a Web designer (what prompted my question above) or is it really the job of, say, a focus group facilitator?

A focus group facilitator doesn't try to influence the audience. And focus groups usually don't even empathize with the customer, they simply write down what the customer wants, if they prefer blue or red, not why they prefer it and what that says about their overall goals.

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