And visual design is all about understanding how layouts, colors, typography etc contribute to a larger sense of what the thing is about, its values, history, c

And visual design is all about understanding how layouts, colors, typography etc contribute to a larger sense of what the thing is about, its values, history, community, etc. If Couchsurfing looked like Airbnb, that would be a design failure, probably. Or at least it would alienate many of its existing users. Couchsurfers typically don't mind a reasonably messy room, because it's all about thrifty hospitality and this student/traveller community. Looking at Couchsurfing now though, in fact it does look like Airbnb... Like they "modernized" the design... and indeed I've heard from former big fans of the site that they don't like it anymore, that it's changing culturally, and that they now prefer BeWelcome... and their site doesn't look like Airbnb at all. With a lot of SaaS landing pages I just wonder who they imagine as their target market. Maciej at Pinboard seems to be doing good and earning respect by designing the site he and his friends would actually like to use.