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Comment by widdershins | Hacker News Reader

Interesting article, but I'm in the UK and Paypal still looks and works exactly the same for me as it has for years. It's very slow, rather ugly, and very inconsistent - the splash page seems styled differently to the login page seems styled differently to the help page... I could go on.

I know this is mostly superficial stuff, but it doesn't contribute to a good experience at all.

Slightly OT, but why is it suddenly all the rage for sites to have persistent nav-bars that follow you down the page? The one on this blog is obnoxiously huge, and obscures a lot of content. What's wrong with scrolling to the top of the page?

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I totally agree about the persistent navbars. If they are really slim, I can tolerate it. That one is obnoxious.

I put a persistent nav bar at the top of my latest site (http://bosscheck.me) so that potential customers are always looking at a "book now" option. Shallow and obvious, perhaps, but my assumption is that this is optimal for conversion.

Conversion in particular is where you should never assume what's optimal =)

I hear you! :-(

Your navbar is much nicer and less intrusive though, I like it. Have you thought about differentiating the booking button from the rest of your navbar elements?

Yes, I've thought about that exact idea probably more than it deserves, but I'm trying to err on the side of not appearing spammy while simultaneously keeping the "book now" button always in easy reach.

I genuinely wonder how it is possible for paypal to have such terrible design for so long? Everyone knows its an issue, and it seems like a couple 100k in design work would clear up the issue for the next 4-5 years.

The move toward Node as a platform will make things like cosmetic redesigns much easier to accomplish. I don't think many design firms could, or would want to, work within PayPal's older stack, which requires knowledge of not only Java but dozens of internal services.

Keep in mind that PayPal is a gut-wrenching edge case of internationalization and localization. If you're an Israeli person transferring Thai baht while you're in Chile, the website must account for that while respecting your user preferences and all local, national, and international law. It's a gross problem no matter how you handle it, and it utterly prevents drive-by redesigns.

Maybe it's not terrible? Amazon tests everything to death and their site is very "ugly" too.

Does testing have much to do with it? What's the angle I am missing?

Once you have been acquired there is no longer a point trying hard.

How come? Wouldn't the company that acquired you want you to succeed so their acquisition wasn't wasted? If you're point is that the founder has 'succeeded' and won't try as hard his new boss will fire him.

I would imagine main objective would be not taking risks because you already earned your big time money. Redesigning GUI and switching technology are risks.

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