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Big mistake here... a huge one actually... HN and Stack Overflow have the _right_ kind of design because in one way or another it appeals to readers. Author is clearly not a tech guy, he doesn't understand that appeal and lightheartedly makes a very misleading statement.

If you are working on your startup think what "sort" of design you should have first. Imagine if Graham would make HN in fashion website style and vice versa.

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Clearly what appeals to users on HN and SO is the content, not the design. Just because both sites are successful with their current visual design doesn't mean that they wouldn't be even more successful with a better style.

And yes, I'm not a tech guy, I'm a designer. Which is why I'm writing about design, and not tech.

But what you are saying is - let's just have "some design". Like nice background pattern or smth. Sorry but I so disagree with this. In case of mentioned sites it would be a major fail. And btw I'm a designer too...

Content is always king. Both engineering and design makes no sense without content (in most cases).Design and engineering are ways to work with content.

Design is how the cup looks, and more importantly feels in your hand. Engineering is making sure the cup don't fall apart, keeps the cofee in the cup and don't leak. The coffe is the content.

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