Ask HN: Feature Grid/Price Chart Design? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Feature Grid/Price Chart Design?

9 pointsasnyder7 comments

A couple months ago there was a post concerning the design of feature offering grids which compared and contrasted several grids and listed their advantages and disadvantages. There was also a similar post concerning pricing/feature boxes. I've looked all over searchyc, and google and can't seem to find these posts. If you remember these posts and happen to have the links, please post them. Thanks.

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I'm a REALLY big fan of this article by Smashing Magazine (my #1 stop for design best practices, precisely because they published this):

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/13/pricing-tables-sh...

Thanks, this was one of the posts I was looking for. Thanks. Now, hopefully someone will post the other one.

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1496-design-decisions-the... < 37 Signals Highrise Signup Chart Design

37signals made a bad decision with this, in my opinion. They don't emphasize the expensive packages first, to make the cheaper packages seem more affordable. They make the one you want huge, and the 49 dollar price, at first glance, seems expensive. If they emphasized or drew your eye to the $149 package first, by the time you get to the package you want, at 1/3rd the cost you were looking at before, you'd be more inclined to feel it is a good deal.

Look at WuFoo's design, they do an incredibly great job at the price chart, and they can back up their decisions with data.

http://wufoo.com/signup/

On the other hand, if your service is not something you're trying to upsell people on based on gimmicky features, I strongly suggest following the Slicehost model: http://www.slicehost.com/ They know you know what you need, so they very plainly list all of the plans and their prices with no gimmicky sales bullshit. I love them for that.

I think people read the Highrise chart in the opposite direction that you suggest. They look for the cheapest first, see if it meets their needs then move "up" (left in this case) until they find the one that is the most affordable that meets their needs. They were probably getting a lot of Basic sign ups, so the emphasis would be getting those people to double their payment level by highlighting the next level up as the best deal.

I don't think highlighting the most expensive package to make the others feel cheaper by comparison is very user-friendly either. Users want to quickly find the best package for them and not feel like they're compromising by picking something other than the highest level. Highlighting the highest package sends a signal of inferiority for the rest of the items. By highlighting the middle one, they're saying "hey this is a great package" on its own. If you need more, go higher. If you need less, go lower.

The WuFoo's desing is good. But, I wonder how color blind people can actually differentiate the colors in the signup page.

Chris, one of the founders, is colorblind and so we're able to always get some initial testing and feedback from him.

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