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Comment by pc86 | Hacker News Reader

It's not just people's desire to shit on something in order to feel superior (although that's likely quite a bit of it).

It's the fact that if you have a website dedicated to good user interface, and you want to be known as an authority on good user interfaces, and the site on which you intend to launch or grow this authority has a completely FUBARed user interface... I think it's fair to point that out.

Orange text on dark background? Whatever, it's perfectly readable unless you have poor eyesight. Footer taking up a full third of the page with no quickly discernable way to close it? Definite problem and cause for concern regarding your purported authority on that very issue.

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Have you seen his conversion statistics?

Good ideas often seem bad. You can't know until you've tried it and measured it. At least he's trying it.

A decision than increases metric X is not necessarily a good decision. Consider companies that jack up prices of gasoline and chainsaws after natural disasters. They make a boatload of money doing it, but they also accrue customer bad will.

I'm sure he gets a great sign-up rate from that highly-visible form, but if readers are irritated by it, what negative impact is it having for him?

If his goal is sign-ups, why does it matter how irritated those who don't sign up may be?

Typically sign-ups are not an end goal, but rather a means to get money or involvement. How has Experts Exchange been doing on that front?

Focusing on metrics and simple minute behaviours while disregarding the big picture lead to evil user interfaces.

what negative impact is it having for him?

That is a good question. Assuming there is some goal beyond signups (retention?), then if you cannot or are not measuring it, then that is the biggest problem.

False comparison. The biggest problem with your example is not lost customer good will but that you're breaking the law and risk getting fined/shut down.

No one says you don't have to be smart in picking the metrics you measure.

It's possible there's no immediately apparent close button because the lack of one forces you to read through the copy to figure out how to close the box, which is probably better for conversion rates. I know I wouldn't have even known there was an option to subscribe otherwise, because I would've headed reflexively straight for a close button in the upper right.

Whether that's ultimately a good UI choice I can't really say. Is not being able to find a close button quickly enough so alienating an experience that it would cause many users to turn away or never come back?

I agree with everything you said, but would like to add that apart from having very poor contrast, which does affect readability, orange text on a dark background is also quite tacky. Halloween colors.

Hadn't even thought of the Halloween bit! That's a good point.

The HN header has never spooked me.

I read the page at 1920x1200 and I didn't even notice the footer until I started reading the comments in this thread. Once I saw it, it did feel odd though.

Only after this did I realise that one must pay attention to smaller screens too while thinking of UI design. (I am just a developer and almost never did any UI design I must admit - but it was an observation that seemed interesting to me).

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