Ask HN: Does the website design matter? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does the website design matter?

3 pointsArdit2014 comments

One of my friends said that he does not care what a site looks like as long as it has what he needs. I have been designing and redesigning mine to make it look well good and I am just wondering whether I should bother at all.

View on HN

Others have mentioned that there are different definitions of what "design" means, but I will assume you're talking primarily about visual/graphic design more so than the other ways the word is used.

As designers/developers or creative people in general, it's natural to think of our creations as art, they are.

But when it comes to art that has a concrete function, like websites, I find it helps me to remember that the average user will not be coming to a website I build for the sole purpose of marvelling at that lovely gradient that I made or that Ajax UI element that took me hours to put together. They're coming to the site to use a service or obtain information. That's all they're really interested in.

I'm not trying to say that the prettiness of the site doesn't matter, it does (for some sites more than others). But it's secondary to making sure the site is usable/accessible, making sure the visual design doesn't get in the way of what your users are trying to do. I'd also include in this making sure the design conveys the image you're tying to get across. That's part of the design not getting in your users way.

Users by and large will not squint at your visual design like you do and critique it in anywhere near as much detail as you might.

I think the term 'design' can be misleading as it has a few connotations. If you think craigslist or drudge report, you can say design doesn't matter because, they are ugly sites. But there are lots of sights that have nice colors and images but aren't usable.

I couldn't find a link to your site, so I can't figure out where you fit in.

For design, go usable first, then dress it up. like building a house, foundation, make sure the door is in the right place, you've got a nice driveway, etc. Get a site people can look at. Then add the layers of 'design'.

Take a look at apple.com (the mac page is probably better than the home page for a comparison http://apple.com/mac). As usual via their minimalism, there is a ton of design, but you almost want to click on stuff. Compare it to linux.com, less enticing, then try microsoft.com.

I personally fall victim to overloading people with content, and not giving enough direction. Less is often more.

It matters a lot to me. I often hit the back button within 3 seconds of the page loading. The information needs to be cleanly presented and the site needs to look credible.

If design is tantamount to usability, it is the second most important aspect of your site (behind functionality, in my opinion). If design = drop shadows and rounded corners, I would put it on the bottom of my priority list.

If you look sketchy, why should I trust you? Your friend can use Lynx if he doesn't care about Web design.

huh. see, I am always more suspicious of people who put more effort into appearance. I mean, if you show up to a programming interview in a suit, my first impression is that you are trying to distract me from things that matter with your appearance.

But yeah, that's taste, and varies based on who your customers are. Functionality matters to everyone.

I matters much more than you think.

but, surely if the site has what the person wants, what the site looks like doesn't matter?

Well, yes it does.

- Assuming it's the first time someone visits the site, he has to know that what he wants is to be found there. That requires design.

- Someone new to your site will give it roughly 1 second before he decides whether it is any good or not. I'm not making this up, it's been proved in many studies. Taht's design.

- If you're selling something, physical bits or thoughts, you need to convey trust in what you're selling. That's design.

Not that when I talk about design here I'm not so much talking about nice colors and fancy gif's but more about things like overall style, usability, etc.

To add to what max is saying, I've read that we think of sites as a kind of book that the user is going to take their time reading. So we fill them up with directories, gizmos, lots of information. We assume an information-dense page is worth more than a sparse page.

In actuality, web sites are much more like billboards that people pass by on the highway. If you get 1 or 2 seconds of quality interaction time, you're ahead of the game.

I've heard of designers literally squinting their eyes and walking by a monitor quickly to test what kind of impression the site has on the new viewer. For most sites, it's not so good.

If this philosophy were true, we'd all be using sites with tables and blink tags still.

Trust us when we say it matters a lot.

lol, no no, I do not doubt that it matters, but wikepedia does not look so good does it? Or say, timesonline, or some other websites which kind of look horrible, like a sales letter.

It might matter if you are a shop perhaps, but otherwise do people care as long as it has what they want and of course it does not look absolutely awful, but not absolutely sharp either.

Remember that sites that look like they haven't been designed are often the best designed ones. Wikipedia is a good example. It's simple and easy to navigate and it doesn't hurt your eyes.

Google is another prominent example, it looks like it was just thrown together, but in reality it's highly designed to look simple. Did you ever notice the dropshadow in the Google logo? Did you know that the blue line at the top has been chosen as the best one out of 45 shades of blue?

look at myspace. I mean, design matters in the sense that you need to be able to do what your users want to do, but no, rounded edges don't matter.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com