

Ask HN: How much stock do you place in the Design of a site?  - jeggers5


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brk
On average quite a bit, but it depends on the rest of the context I know about
the site.

Examples: 1) Totally random site. Something I discover in a search or from a
twitter link. Good design = engagement. Bad design = lack of trust and general
skepticism

2) Less random site. Many people I "know" are using it. Something like
gplus.to (or whatever that Google+ vanity URL site is). Good design = these
guys must really know what they are doing. Bad design = this is probably one
guys personal project blown up. It might implode so don't get addicted to it,
but can reduce level of skepticism overall.

3) Well-known HN nick posts "this is my weekend project. I suck at design, but
I've written 4 lines of Ruby that can mine bitcoins for you and then mail you
an Amazon gift card AND remember to buy you mom/wife/girlfriend a present on
their birthday". Good design = These sites never have good design ;) Bad
design = This is hard-core real stuff. Just the facts, lightweight simple
interface rocks.

Or something like that.

~~~
jeggers5
+1, Interesting, thanks.

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garethsprice
Give or take, about 59.2% more trust making me about 27% more likely to buy
from a site designed to a level 3 standard over a level 1 standard.

Seriously though, response to design is like response to advertising -
subconscious and subtle, something that the user may not understand
themselves.

[http://tbbuck.com/building-a-web-application-that-
makes-500-...](http://tbbuck.com/building-a-web-application-that-
makes-500-a-month-%E2%80%93-part-ii/) was an interesting find, showing a
conversion rate jump for a small web app based on positive design.

I think it would be more accurate to measure this in terms of conversion rate
or other results-driven measurements.

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bluesix
An article was published today on this very topic:
[http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/to-
catch...](http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/to-catch-a-
roving-surfer-the-prettiest-always-win-20110712-1hc7v.html) which refers to a
report done by Melb Uni. Not sure how they came up with the data though.

Personally however, I put a huge amount of stock in a site's design (Reddit
excluded).

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damoncali
In my experience, good design is critical in getting people's attention. When
I redesigned <http://trackjumper.com>, the bounce rate went from 60%+ to 40%.
And it's not even what I would call "good" yet. Just a lot better than it was.

That's 50% more people sticking around to find out if they like the product.

