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

by jeggers5 on 7/12/2011, 8:34 PM with 5 comments
  • by brk on 7/12/2011, 9:07 PM

    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.

  • by garethsprice on 7/23/2011, 11:35 PM

    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-... 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.

  • by bluesix on 7/13/2011, 2:12 AM

    An article was published today on this very topic: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/to-catch... 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).

  • by damoncali on 7/13/2011, 2:00 PM

    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.