We’re hiring a Lead Visual Designer | Hacker News Reader

We’re hiring a Lead Visual Designer

leadvisualdesigner.intercom.io

150 pointsbenarent47 comments

I made this page. To the design critics: I wish I could have spent more time ironing out the kinks. But I couldn't afford another day. That's why I'm hiring a full time visual designer! The next single-use, throw-away ad will be a model of true perfection. We'll likely run a private beta for it. We'll A/B test the copy, conduct extensive cross-browser, cross-device testing too.

:-P I do genuinely appreciate your feedback. But you've got to choose your battles with everything you do, always. Including with design. I'm betting / hoping that the flaws on this page won't stop it doing its job.

You have to avoid the temptation to roll around with haters. Because now your comment is the top one people will see. And the vast majority of them (and me) liked your page a lot. But then we come here and our first impression is of you being defensive. Please ignore the 1% whiners and don't acknowledge them publicly.

It's prettier than 99.9999% of the things I see on the web.

Say 'fuck' or don't say 'fuck'. Don't mask 'fuck', it's the worst of both worlds. People who like swearing will be annoyed, and people who don't like swearing will be annoyed. It can also make you look like you're timid and want to be edgy.

If you're in control of the text, you should never be in a situation where you're self-censoring - all you're doing is moving the origin of the censored word from the page to the person's head.

Ha. Well said.

We respect you more than to try to lure you with promises of iPads, snacks, foosball tables or any of that junk...

Thank you, I'm glad companies are respecting the fact that good developers can see through these 'perks', and hope this will go the way of the 'rockstar' or 'ninja' developer descriptors. We can all afford plenty of $1.50 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to maximum gluttony levels on our own salary, and this is no way to prevent weight gain at a startup. About the foosball tables, at the last startup I was, we were so busy that if I or anyone else were caught near it or the complimentary Wii/XBox/Pool Table/Jacuzzi, it would be guaranteed to appear somewhere on the next performance review.

"I'm taking the foosball table when this bitch fails"

Great pitch, but some feedback:

On my Macbook Air, I didn't even realize there was something below the fold. I was scrolling side to side and clicking on the icon, trying to figure out what to do (partly the fault of Lion's disappearing scrollbars). The min-width of 1280px seems unnecessarily wide. Scanning right to left and back again to read what your company does is not the most pleasant experience.

Had to read this comment before realizing there more to the page by scrolling down.

After about 10 seconds of not finding anything (even with a horizontal scroll), I gave up ... and didn't learn there was more below the fold until I (re)checked the comments here.

Is your browser not open to full width and height? I'm on an 11" MBA, and didn't have to horizontally scroll at all (at 1366px wide), and I could see the end of the fold easily.

Regarding the disappearing scrollbars, I've actually added prompts for scrolling to a website, knowing that Lion, iOS and Android users wouldn't get a hint from visible scrollbars. (My biggest issue is the way horizontal scroll is so easily misinterpreted as a swipe [chrome in lion]. At least a few times a week I inadvertently go back a page...)

I never run my browser at full width.

Everyone seems fixated on the design of this particular page (a one-time use site to find a great designer). The important thing to take away from this and what makes it great in my opinion is how honest he is and how he address the concerns a designer will have. All the nonsense you see in a typical job post is simply mentioned briefly in the last of 6 bullet points under "boring details".

I bet he gets a great designer because he's demonstrated he can provide a great work environment for said designer.

On a similar train of thought, he showed that he spent at least as much time and effort appealing to said designers as said designers will (should?) spend applying. Cast the net on Monster and you'll get plenty of fish, but go out with Ahab and a spear and you'll net a couple whales.

I'm pretty sure after reading Moby Dick that I do not want to be hired by Ahab. It doesn't really turn out well for most of the crew.

And yet not a single clickable link anywhere on the page to the company's main site to learn more about them or their product.

... and I had to horizontal scroll to check.

This is really very nice, but a shame about the swear word, which, I think, makes the whole thing feel a little tacky. I know this has been discussed to death but I can't help but cringe a little when I see something like that.

Fair comment. I might remove it.

If someone who feels offended by swear words would not fit your company culture, perhaps you should keep it.

Agreed. I often make it a point to swear in an interview to gauge the candidate's reaction. If swearing offends you, you wouldn't make it a day on our team. Not saying it's right, it's just the truth.

To the contrary, it plainly expresses to me (a pottymouth) that I wouldn't have to spend considerable effort in watching my every word while amongst my peers.

I'm perfectly willing to mind my Ps and Qs in the presence of clients, but I prefer a culture in which I can let my guard down somewhat to my co-workers.

If that is not the case, then by all means, delete it.

A swear word can be powerful when wielded with precision and skill, but I agree that in this context it doesn't work.

Agreed, it's a little jarring amidst the otherwise nice looking page.

This is good design? I sat at the first screen for a while clicking on things to no avail. It was not immediately apparent that I needed to scroll down...

It's "good design" insofar as it's a design that looks pretty, but it could use some usability tweaks. Perhaps their next lead designer could do a better job than the current one?

He's hiring a designer...

Maybe he wants a designer with UX in his mind ;) I simple down arrow fixed to the lower right hand corner would have filled the requirement.

I found it amusing enough to keep playing til I figured it out, which is not usually the case with most artsy design pages that I land on. He may have something there.

This is a great way to advertise a position. Clean design marketing to designers, communicating exactly what you would be working on. Totally unsurprising that my friends at Intercom are responsible; they're pretty great.

The only thing missing is a link to http://intercom.io itself.

Just a few comments:

1. Wish the huge icon was clickable that lead somewhere.

2. The name tag has no hover feedback. It's actually a link to twitter but it has no hover effect and it's not a usual 'link' graphic (underline/blue color/button).

3. Really jarring 'timeline' (the exploded/expanded icon view) section. Very spread out and small, forcing me to bounce my eyes left and right, and scrolling down to read one side, then scrolling back up and down to read the other.

4. The 4 circles (I'm CEO etc) needs the flow reversed. People usually read left to right, so the first circle should be top left instead of top right.

5. Is there a reason why the icons get smaller and smaller as we scroll down? Kind of a jarring and inconsistence viewing experience, especially the tiny text. (The expanded/exploded view of the icon).

Those are just my 2 cents, good luck with the search!

4. I took the fact that there wasn't particular order on them to mean they have a very flat structure, or that you'll all be equals. Looked good to me.

There is an intended order.

Right Top, Left Top, Bottom Right, Bottom left.

Ah my mistake was commenting from memory... I thought you were talking about #3 under the 6 Things section... which is in order anyway.

Now that I look again at the part you were talking about... yah... you're right. Though something to think about, because the site has the whole vertical thing going, I read the bubbles in the correct order anyway, even though they were laid out incorrectly horizontally. It was natural enough to me that I didn't have a problem with it until you pointed it out. Kinda interesting.

Am I being nitpicky in pointing out that this probably shoulda been done not using giant background images? I guess if it's not a web design company it's not a big deal...but it would raise a flag for me as a designer

Totally off topic, but his name and my name are both pronounced the same, but different historical roots. Interesting stuff.

He's probably one of the rare people to appreciate the "but why not Owen?" question I get all the time :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E%C3%B3gan_(given_name)

This will be a fantastic opportunity to whoever gets it. To the armchair critics of the design. Maybe, this is why they will need a designer.

Great team and great product! Just worked with them, whoever they hire will definitely be in good hands :)

Very cool bunch of dudes if any designers are wondering.

"I am the CEO and Lead Visual Designer at Intercom."
"I'm looking for an incredible new Lead Visual Designer."

"So I can be the CEO and Lead Visual Designer at Intercom"

Huh?

You're missing the strike through on "and Lead Visual Designer" in the last line.

The "and Lead Visual Designer" part has a line through it, at least in my web browser (Chrome dev channel) though the line is quite faint.

Oh man, come on guys, you gotta pay attention before commenting. The line was crossed meaning he wants to delegate that job and not do it himself.

Overall it's a great design, and what I like the most is that they put it the extra effort to show that there is attention to detail even in the hiring process. That speaks well of him.

Yep, I thought exactly the same thing. Didn't notice the strikethrough (it's almost invisible on iPad) before reading the other comments here.

Would be better to make a horrible site and say that if you are a better designer, hop aboard.

Great team to work with :-)

Really nice, smart team to work with too

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