Hacker News Reader

Comment by stared | Hacker News Reader

Maybe it's me, but I consider Craigslist's interface to be clean and minimal - with no unnecessary stuff (like stock photos, or animations, in the background). Aesthetic value is not always the priority, from the user's perspective (heck, I want to rent a room, not - visit an art gallery). Looking great at the first glance of a non-user is a totally different thing from a site serving its purpose well for its users.

And exactly for the pursue of the minimalism I went from Delicious to Pinboard. Cleaner... (OK, plus - working).

Also, it's why I prefer HN looks to Reddit looks. Or even aesthetic looks of things like Blizzard forum.

View on HN

And visual design is all about understanding how layouts, colors, typography etc contribute to a larger sense of what the thing is about, its values, history, community, etc.

If Couchsurfing looked like Airbnb, that would be a design failure, probably. Or at least it would alienate many of its existing users.

Couchsurfers typically don't mind a reasonably messy room, because it's all about thrifty hospitality and this student/traveller community.

Looking at Couchsurfing now though, in fact it does look like Airbnb... Like they "modernized" the design... and indeed I've heard from former big fans of the site that they don't like it anymore, that it's changing culturally, and that they now prefer BeWelcome... and their site doesn't look like Airbnb at all.

With a lot of SaaS landing pages I just wonder who they imagine as their target market.

Maciej at Pinboard seems to be doing good and earning respect by designing the site he and his friends would actually like to use.

Craiglist is already an established player, and its minimalism is part of a well-known brand.

Suppose you were to pitch a new startup today, at YCombinator or Product Hunt or a VC meeting, and your web app copies the Craigslist aesthetic. Would you be taken seriously or laughed out of the room, even if the functionality and content was top-notch? Would you take that chance?

This is pretty much what people do, but with bootstrap.css instead of the default unstyled Times, is it not?

Because that gives you some degree of design. There's an enormous difference between "looks the same" and "looks like 1996". The average end-user has basic expectations and will very likely leave if those expectations aren't met, at least until they've already bought in.

For certain kinds of site this look could be a positive - thinking of Pirate Bay, 4chan etc. Not the sort of things that get VC funding granted, but where a non-corporate, amateurish design gains you street cred.

Personally, I trust tarsnap way more than I would if it were bootstrap-looking.

I am more likely to leave if the site looks overdesigned, honestly, because that is a signal that this company is focused more on the "acquiring customers and extracting attention" side of the business than on the "providing a useful service" part I'm actually looking for. If the site looks plain and practical, it might turn out to be useful; if the site looks gorgeous and cutting-edge, the company is probably just going to piss me off.

If the site is plain, it looks hand-crafted; like somebody who cares about it made it, and they're too busy making awesome content to fuss about the paint job.

If the site is "designed", it looks like someone just hired a designer to sell me something.

Sure, if were to pitch a new startup, I would make it "nice".

Why? Because looks good at the first glance, looks polished, fits the current fashion. Still, it does not mean that it makes it better for the users.

This demonstrates a flaw in the startup-funding process more than it demonstrates a flaw in the Craigslist aesthetic.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com