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Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

I agree about modals. But seems like the same points can be made about the website's design that trying to teach others about modals, have you considered using plain text or a more readable website to convey your point across without resorting to 1-bit retro decoration?

Edit: 1 bit lol

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If my obese doctor tells me I need to lose weight, I have two choices. Either I can weigh his advice, or I can ignore him and cluck that his comment is really rich considering he is overweight himself.

I think the first option is helpful; the second option is boringly obvious and not helpful.

As for the style, I found it to be entertaining and helped make a possibly dry topic seem a little less like a lecture and more like friendly advice.

That's a bad analogy. The reason why you trust your obese doctor for weight loss advice is not because their body shape, but because of the credentials (Doctor).

Replace a doctor with a random stranger (which is what this website is, I don't know the person giving advice about the modals) on the street who is obese and tries to tell you with authoritative voice - "Hey! Listen, you're fat and this is how to lose weight!".

That's more accurate. I can agree with you about the entertainment value, I personally don't see it but if someone is entertained by it, good.

The depth and clarity of the advice and the effort put into presenting it work as solid credentials in this case. The author is clearly a “doctor” of design.

Look how well those those graphics get their message across, whilst also matching the style of the text. That takes a real steady hand (both literately and figuratively).

Yeah I had a hard time reading it without getting distracted. So I went to a website that converts pages to plain-text and the first thing that popped up was a newsletter modal.

So I guess point taken.

I don't love retro design either but that seems irrelevant.

To anyone who's familiar with the topic it's immediately clear from the copy that the author understands it.

Considering that the target audience is other designers, why does the presentation matter?

I think it kills the credibility of the designer trying to tell others, authoritatively mind you, that modals are bad while A) I have no idea who this person is or know their credentials B) Why should I listen to them if they're presenting it without a good understanding of design which is what they're trying to preach others?

IMO it totally kills it. Others may not have as strong of an opinion. This is the age old question about separating art from the artist. With authoritative didactics, especially as a stranger on the internet, it is even more important to associate art with the artist so to speak. It comes with responsibility.

> Considering that the target audience is other designers, why does the presentation matter

I fail to see the logic here. Good design helps people learn easier. It's not like designers have some unique ability to learn equally well no matter how poor the design is.

Well context... the information the author is presenting is simple, right brain stuff. No one with UI experience is going to have a hard time digesting it.

It's not like he used gifs or flashing colors.

Now I kinda want gifs and flashing colors.

That isn't actually true. I think I have UI experience, but I would actually have preferred some mockup examples instead of 1 bit bmp pseudo-thumbnails to represent his ideas. Surely it would be better to show some good user interfaces.

1-bit actually.

(But, yes, it’s pretty awful and makes it hard to take the content seriously even though it’s good content.)

I found it entertaining. I would completely ignore this as a generic rant without the stylized presentation.

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