

Paypal's logo designed to look like a recommendation? - latch
http://openmymind.net/2010/12/15/Paypals-logo-looks-like-a-recommendation

======
wmeredith
First of all, this isn't PayPal's logo, it's just a button, and if anything
"The safer, easier way to pay" may be their slogan. The button itself is just
a web graphic that contains their logo. I'm not trying to be pedantic, but to
designers/marketers (me), this stuff is important. Think of someone trying to
offer the general Hackernews user some insight by discussing some aspect of
Microsoft's Internet Explorer _search engine_ \- makes you grind your teeth.

Anyway, to comment on the actual content of the parent, I would say having the
PayPal button designed to look like a recommendation is definitely the case.
All calls to action should be designed to be as enticing as possible (Within
ethical limits of course - stray outside of those and you break the UX.) The
really interesting part comes when you ask, "Is it designed to look like a
recommendation from the site hosting the button or from PayPal itself?"

I'd say the intent is definitely the former in this case and the button was
specifically to designed look like a recommendation from the button's
environment as well as an endorsement from the company itself. Is it ethical?
I don't know, but I think it's pretty smart.

~~~
jeff18
Not sure if I parsed your comment correctly, but I'd just like to clear up
that it was my understanding that that's the official button you're supposed
to use, not a ploy to drive people through PayPal by me. -humble bundle
cofounder

~~~
wmeredith
Yeah, I get that. Reading it back it's a little fought to discern, but my
intent was in fact to convey that all design considerations of the button and
the logo was in PayPal's hands.

Congrats on the bundle by the way. It's great product!

------
NumberFiveAlive
In our online store 'The safer, easier way to pay.' _is_ a part of the page.
The logo gif and the markup is part of the specs when you implement Paypal.
The code looks like this, and came directly from the Paypal implementation
guide:

    
    
       <img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/logo/PayPal_mark_37x23.gif" align="absmiddle" style="margin-right: 7px;" /><span style="font-size: 11px; font-family:    Arial, Verdana;">The safer, easier way to pay.</span>
    

Edit: formatting

~~~
jessriedel
Meta: Is the scroll bar behavior in the above comment broken for anyone else?
I can click and drag to scroll, but the scroll bar itself doesn't actually
move until I release my mouse button. (Firefox 3.6.13 on Mac 10.4.11)

~~~
calloc
Meta reply: Nope, works perfectly for me. I am on Safari 5.0.3 on 10.6.5. Not
sure about FireFox but it has always exhibited rather buggy behaviour in
certain situations on Mac OS X.

~~~
jessriedel
Yep, you're right. It works fine for me on Safari.

------
TheCoreh
Removing the antialias doesn't make it look like it's part of the website. It
make it look fugly. Come on guys, this is almost 2011, who doesn't have
antialiased fonts on their computers these days?

~~~
AndrejM
Those who can't afford a high dpi LCD screen?

~~~
colanderman
I don't get this... I have a 90dpi monitor and subpixel antialiasing on Linux
is beautiful.

I should also point out that antialiasing (and subpixel rendering in
particular) is _designed_ for low pixel densities. High pixel density monitors
do not need antialiasing. (This is why printed font rasterizers such as
Metafont do not perform antialiasing.)

~~~
AndrejM
I've noticed that on some monitors antialiasing looks fantastic, while on
others not. My sister's laptop has a smaller screen and enabled antialiased
fonts, and they really do look great. But on my Samsung 2232BW, which is a 22"
1680x1050 monitor, antialiased fonts just look really bad.

So maybe it has to do with more than just DPI, but generally I've read that
high-DPI screens have no trouble at all with displaying antialiased fonts.
(And yes, I have tried numerous calibration tools, with no luck).

~~~
Kliment
It's likely they have a different pixel color order. If the subpixels are not
in the order the algorithm expects, it will look worse than without aa.

------
cobralibre
I was surprised that the article didn't comment on the _wording_ of the slogan
in the PayPal button. The words 'safer' and 'easier' are comparative
adjectives; they create an implied recommendation _for_ PayPal _against_ other
options, which are both less safe and less easy. The other buttons don't
acknowledge other options -- rather, they merely emphasize speed: 'now' and
'fast'.

If you were a naive online shopper presented with multiple payment options at
checkout, with no other information to guide you, you very well might choose
the one that is labeled 'safer' and 'easier'.

(And it's worth pointing out that many people don't have a clear idea of
what's going on when they click on _any_ of the buttons. It's perfectly
plausible that people will parse the PayPal slogan as a recommendation. Think
of the infamous Facebook/ReadWriteWeb login incident.)

~~~
euccastro
What I ask myself when I see such comparative slogans is why they often say
the likes of "the safer and easier" instead of "the safest and easiest". I
guess this is basic stuff for advertising pros.

Plausible reasons that come to mind: "safest and easiest"...

\- sounds more open to challenge; it invites the reader to challenge such a
bold claim.

\- might put you in a mood to maximize. "Safer and easier", on the other hand,
puts in a positive light any improvement over some other alternative, or over
what you have currently. Thus it invites you to satisfice and act.

\- sounds more like bragging, like a phrase said from the advertiser's
perspective. "Safer and easier" sounds more like an observation from the
user's perspective. I'm not sure how to argue this, but it sounds that way to
me.

~~~
stoney
I think it's because "safest and easiest" is quite a definite claim - they
would be saying that no other payment method is safer than them, which could
lead to claims of false advertising from their competitors. "Safer and easier"
doesn't really mean anything at all without knowing what it is being compared
to.

But I also agree with your assessment - safer and easier might have
psychological advantages

------
goldins
I think it's also interesting to note the Amazon button. The button has a
strong call to action ("Pay now" rather than "* Checkout *") and only mentions
the method (Amazon payments) underneath. This (I think) is a good method to
get those users who don't have a preference (or don't know the difference)
between PayPal, Amazon, or Google Checkout.

~~~
Elepsis
The Amazon button was also the most appealing to me, because it looks the most
like my internal notion of what a "Buy now" button should be. I'm so trained
by my experience on Amazon that that's what I click to make the purchase that
it's the natural place I want to click to buy--even on a different site.

------
kingofspain
If anything, it's the Google Checkout graphic that seems to fit better with
what he's saying. To my eyes, the Paypal text looks more a part of the graphic
that the Google version does.

Of course I could be in a minority but I reckon you could place these logos on
a number of modern websites and I bet Google's 'text' would fit the layout
style best.,

~~~
pzxc
I agree, the Google Checkout tagline looks like it would be more part of the
page than the Paypal one.

------
lwhi
Fox News has a slogan 'fair and balanced' underneath their logo. It doesn't
change my opinion.

~~~
JacobAldridge
It's a rule I called 'Processed Cheddar Cheese Food'.

When I worked at McDonalds (1st year of university) the cheese slices for the
burgers were delivered in a box marked 'Processed Cheddar Cheese Food
Product'. I built the rule then and there: _If you have to say it's food, it
probably isn't._

I now apply that in the business world. Got a slogan that says 'We're the
best' or 'Fair and Balanced'? Processed Cheddar Cheese Food.

There is a fine line. Sometimes you need to make a statement of this nature. A
sniff test (bs detector) usually helps in borderline cases. If you even have
to ask whether the rule applies, it probably does.

~~~
lwhi
I'd imagine the 'food' part of that label might be required by law because the
amount of actual cheese the 'food stuff' contains is minimal :)

------
wccrawford
I believe it's intentional that they want you to think their method is safer,
etc, but I don't believe it's an attempt to make it look like part of the
site.

------
ams6110
Somewhat meta: why offer a customer three ways to pay? It's confusing; which
one do I chose? What if I pick the wrong one?

~~~
mlinsey
Your concern is legitimate, but you'd have to look at real data to see if the
impact of that confusion is outweighed by the impact of forcing people to
register for another payments service just to buy your product. I know that I
don't want a PayPal account or Google Payments account. Without the option to
use Amazon Payments, I would have not bought the Humble Indie Bundle. I
suspect many people felt the same about the other payment options.

~~~
ams6110
I seem to recall being able to make a payment with a credit-card via PayPal
without setting up an account. That was at least a few years ago; is that no
longer possible?

~~~
mlinsey
Probably, but part of the reason I didn't want to register for a new account
was just so I wouldn't have to go through inputing all my information again.

------
hopeless
I thought the same thing when I came across the logos on the page earlier
today. Thought it was very smart

------
dedward
All good design is intentional by definition.

------
ookblah
if only they put this level of attention to use on their adaptive payments
checkout flows

------
drivebyacct2
Doesn't matter. Google's got the feature I want. It respects my most preferred
form of payment and it damn fast.

------
OzzyB
Rubbish.

~~~
wahnfrieden
Care to elaborate why? (If not, just vote down or flag instead of posting.)

------
gabriele
why on earth is this rant at the top of HN home?

~~~
achompas
Because it's a post dealing with UX and logo design, two topics that are
extremely relevant to developers.

~~~
gabriele
I'm still not convinced, the argument is poorly reasoned. The PayPal button
might just look oldish style on purpose because that would imply PayPal is the
old player (thus more trustworthy) but it doesn't stand out more than the
other buttons. Maybe it does look like a recommended choice just because it's
the first one in the row.

~~~
Kliment
The way I see it (and it was poorly explained, I agree) is that because the
text below the paypal button looks like it is part of the host website, rather
than the button image, it appears that the website is recommending paypal over
other payment options.

