Web App Site Designs | Hacker News Reader

Web App Site Designs

designinstruct.com

81 pointsiisbum31 comments

Not trying to just be contradictory here, but does anyone else notice that almost all these websites look the same? I mean, CarbonMade stands out, but almost all these other websites, from a 10-foot view, look exactly the same.

Is that because the design is "right" in some way? Because to me, it just means that some of these website designs don't stand out in any way.

It is true. Most of these websites have what I call 'popular SaaS'. I don't know if it is the 'right' design, but it seems to be used by many web apps.

There is a menu bar across the top with 'why x', 'demo', 'features', 'blog', 'signup' or 'pricing', and 'login'. Below is a nice picture or screen shot with a punch line and a big call-to-action button. And below that is misc boxes of text trying to communicate more about the product.

This seems to be a lot of what you want to communicate to potential buyers and is claimed to be one of the most effective designs (one source is the book Start Small Stay Small http://startupbook.net). It seems to be a standard of sorts. It would be interesting to know if this design is proven to be the most effective basic design known for selling web apps, or what is better.

Yeah, the author has a very boring taste. Here's a list I made in 5 minutes (and I think it's way more interesting):

http://www.roostblog.com/

http://www.heathwaller.com/

http://www.bohemiadesign.co.uk/

http://www.sproutfund.org/spring/

http://www.racket.net.au/

http://www.thirdculturestudios.com/

http://jakeprzespo.com/

http://www.brewshop.co.nz/

http://patterns.ideo.com/

http://www.unconventionalguides.com/

http://www.eightytwodesign.com/new/

http://www.boxee.tv/

While these may be nice sites, your list isn't comparable to his list. His list contains 30 web applications. Your list has two web stores and the rest are generally content sites. So you've kind of missed the point on why he put the list together.

I don't agree with your opinion about his taste either. He's pointing to 30 sites which generally focus on driving new sales of their products. While they may have a similar approach, the list does contain a variety of styles and variations. I suspect the similarities in the designs speaks more to the selling process and the mainstream techniques used to drive sales rather than the author's "boring taste".

While there are some interesting designs here, it's also worth noting that few (perhaps just one?) of your links are for web apps, which was the whole theme of the post.

Interestingly enough, the most obvious web app amongst your links (http://www.boxee.tv) does indeed have a somewhat similar design to those find in the original article.

Since these are web applications and the front pages are focused on conversion, the take away should be that there is an emerging pattern. When visitors come to a site, which is more beneficial, a unique design, or a common look and feel that makes it easier to predict where to read, where to click, and how to navigate the landing page?

Is that because the design is "right" in some way?

Nope. It's just that all the designers currently like ripping off 37signals. In a few years there will be another hard-on-inducing design, and then everything will look like that.

Thanks for the link! I agree that there are some nice designs there that will inspire me in the future. However, I wanted to remind you of the Hacker News Guidelines:

"If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."" - http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I up-voted anyway though! Good stuff. Just a reminder for the future. :-)

Thanks for the reminder (and the upvote), will try and remember for next time.

I'm trying but I cant figure out the reason for this guideline. Or why, as a reader, I would care if a subject began with a integer? I know a lot of spammy submissions are like this on sites like digg, but if blocking spam was this easy, I could just filter my inbox on the exact phrase "viagra" and defeat all spammers worldwide.

My guess is that the number is not meaningful for any reason other than providing a count.

30 Beautiful Web App Site Designs is no more meaningful than Beautiful Web App Site Designs, no new information or useful information is included in the number 30.

I think it does. The former tells us to expect a curated list of more than 29 but fewer than 31 eye-catching designs, at least in OPs eyes. The latter is just bleh, like a statement on a resume that reads "I managed a lot of money when I worked for a really huge company." Far more compelling is a line like "I oversaw a fund of more than $[Big Number] during my tenure as Investment Manager at [Company Name]." I think that's what's going on here.

I'm not saying that makes it right in the eyes of PG or in terms of the guidelines. But IMHO those 2 characters tell us a lot about what to expect on the other side.

I knew that comment was asking for downvotes. I'm sorry, I just disagree.

The number tells us to expect a list. That's information. Then it tells us that it's a long list, which in turn rules out the likelihood that it's one of those 3-point time wasters someone from Demand Media whipped together in the name of page views. More information still.

Numbered list are usually more appealing than normal essays, for a psychological reason. They lure the reader with the promise of content divided in short, skippable items, which are fast to read or even just scroll. That is why every glossy magazine now has the promise of "X ways to approach women", "X ways to lose weight" and the like.

Then again, the number provides me with the information that it is an article in the ever popular list format.

This is a good opportunity to reinforce the #1 rule in website design:

You have three seconds.

As in, that's all the time the average person is going to spend on your site before hitting the back button or deciding to invest more time. If you can't get your message across in those 3 seconds, you lose.

Nearly half the sites on that list pass the test for me. I can tell that "this is a website that will help me invoice clients", and decide whether that's something I care about. The other half though, I have no idea what they do and likely never will.

If I had to pick a Rule #2, it might be: Make sure they remember your name. Half those sites (alas, a different half) I'll never find my way back to because the name is either not given prominently, not memorable, or easily misspelled.

I might remember that I saw something called Iceberg, but I certainly wouldn't know to spell it with two R's. Fortunately for me, typing in iceberg.com will get me to a nice looking web app with a blue background, a picture of an iceberg, and something to sell me. Unfortunately for Icebrrg, it's somebody else's business.

There are actually two different apps on that list with the name Iceberg, and neither uses iceberg.com.

Wow. I would have expected that the one would at least have its own domain name sorted out. It seems that both fail then.

At least the one shows up in a google search (#5 result for its own product name, which is also not a good sign.)

Despite the death of "Web 2.0" as a term, the trend for large Helvetica continues unabated!

There are some great services in the list, though. Their work is the stuff that's more impressive than their design.

There's no large Helvetica on http://recurseapp.com (my app)

This is pushed much by the iPhone. It's super-easy to just go with Helvetica (I do it all the time...) because people associate it with the iPhone.

Besides, it's a nice font. :)

I had never seen http://www.playlistnow.fm/ mentioned in this list before. It's insanely beautiful website and you can find playlist for the work you are doing. Like if you are coding mention it there and it will find playlists for that and so on.

Pretty cool website. Not my website btw.

Yeah, this service seems awesome.

Except that if it gets big enough, the record labels are going to put it out of business...

The list seems to be more "web app homepage designs", and doesn't really offer any evaluation (or commentary) on the actual design of the apps.

Am I the only one who has become a bit bored by the current trend in web design? Those sites all look the same to me, and the big fonts make feel stupid. W I T H A B I G F O N T I H A V E T O R E A D R E A L L Y S L O W...

As soon as a printout of postmarkapp.com reaches the desk of someone at DHL's legal department, they will sued into oblivion for trademark infringement.

Because it features the color yellow? Inspired maybe, but they don't use any trademarkable elements on their design, and doesn't even have anything similar to DHL's website than the colors (which are not even the same really). They're not even in the same industry.

In a couple of years, you should see the same blog post with a different title "Designs that are so 2010"

postmarkapp is a great SMTP service. We use them, and recommend highly.

how does that compare to something like Sendgrid (that is awesome btw)?

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