6 ms·

I suspect there's a huge amount of halo effect happening in this discussion. Company makes good product, company gets funded,company hires good designers, compa

I suspect there's a huge amount of halo effect happening in this discussion. Company makes good product, company gets funded,company hires good designers, company spends a lot on marketing... people go "wow, amazing design!". Other designers write blogs about it, analyzing and glorifying minute details. Another company makes good product, no funding, unknown, no brand, hires good designers... no one cares. So, what do people here think of the design of https://draftsend.com/ https://draftsend.com/? (I have no affiliation) Can someone break it down into the absolutely incredible design that it is? Rant over, here are my points: - Lots of good designers out there, creating well-thought, delightful experiences. - Lots of good marketers and copy-writers out there, creating smart, thoughtful copy that makes sense to their target audience. - Someone asked, "what are other websites that are in the same league as Stripe's?". Oh, tons of them. See the websites of advertising agencies, design agencies, go look up "beautiful websites list" on a search engine of your choice. And, I'm sure everyone here realizes there's no objective measure of "same league as Stripe", or even Stripe's league. And finally: Stripe's design isn't great design. It's design that a certain people like. If you're saying it's great, then define for whom.

WA 9y ago
You might enjoy this read: https://medium.com/@chopeh/the-state-of-design-ff5142fb806 https://medium.com/@chopeh/the-state-of-design-ff5142fb806
- siddharthdeswal 9y ago
  Thank you! Best laugh I've ever had on HN.
  - dvlsg 9y ago
    I lost it at the top highlight.
- NetOpWibby 9y ago
  That was an enlightening read.
- superasn 9y ago
  Reminds me of an episode of Fraiser where he is all gung-ho about some painting and telling everyone about the greatness of the artist and her artwork, only to find out later that's it is a fake.
- bshimmin 9y ago
  I did! Perhaps it was inspired a little by http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/AAAAAAAAA http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/AAAAAAAAA! (the baby always kills me)...
- bballer 9y ago
  Are you sure you want to exist?
NetOpWibby 9y ago
Thanks to my tracker blockers, I don’t see anything better than 1993 Internet.
jaquers 9y ago
I mostly agree with your point that two designs being the same, the bigger more established brand might garner more attention / praise than the other. However, I think design is also easier to get right when you have a good product. Skimmed the blog because it seemed to be mostly fluff and presumably the author does not work at Stripe, but I do consider this a good design for the following reasons (some aesthetic, some practical, not exhaustive): - Dead simple call to action & it speaks to two core audiences. Either you're a developer and you know how this works (create an account), or you're an executive and you know you want to talk to somebody (contact sales). - The diagonal lines are cool because they stand out on the web (filled with vertical and horizontal lines) and they create movement within the design to draw your eyes over to the little illustrations. - The illustration/hero image itself is nice because there's not so much detail that you get bogged down in the solution yourself, but the variety of big brands and different sorts of user experiences allow you to visualize your brand with a slick checkout experience right next to those "big players". - Well-executed typographic contrast. Think colors, sizing, weights, and variation between title-casing and uppercase. This is important because it creates a visual hierarchy, so if you don't want to read the whole page, at least visually you "know" what is important. - Color palate is well suited to the industry. Too lazy to find facts, but in general blues are known to be calm/soothing and green communicates or gives the perception of trust/success. Whether that is your success as a potential customer, or Stripe's success, idk; Just a vague designerish feeling. - Finally, I think it would good given the points above - but the interactive elements really give it the kind of polish that would make me call it "great". IMO, these types of flourishes are signalling quality. Take them away and the site is just fine, but as the author mentions - to most people they give a sense of delight. Not over the top; just subtle, playful little elements. Regarding the link you mentioned; I don't think it's a bad design, but not on the caliber of Stripe's. For me the typography is quite dull, and having read all of the text on the page; it's not really clear to me what valuable service they are providing. My impression is that it's a white-brandable video hosting site, with maybe some version control? I'm not exactly sure because I only gleaned that info from the 2 of the 5 bullet points, which are identical to the other 3 generic features. Anyways, I'm just some guy who flunked out of design college - so take all this crap with a grain of salt.
- siddharthdeswal 9y ago
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
user5994461 9y ago
Summary: Looks like a scam asking for money. Don't know what the product is, all I see is a big page asking for my email address, sign ups and $10 a month. I'd highly suggest that you add some more illustrations/videos/sample on the main page to understand what this is about. Your product needs to look really useful and really good if you want people to sign up on a whim. Maybe replace the "sign up now" link/button with a "see how company X doubled their engagement or sign up now" links. There is nowhere to go from the main page except pay or leave.
- siddharthdeswal 9y ago
  Not my product, neither am I affiliated in any manner. I just googled "beautiful landing pages" and picked the first one in the first result to make my point.
  - user5994461 9y ago
    Understood. The look/theme is alright. It's a modern looking, 3 pages website like there are millions of it. I don't think it's as good as it should be though, to get users to register and pay. We were talking about "design". It can designate many things. Look. Colors. User experience. Conversion.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
phantom_package 9y ago
RE: DraftSend landing page When the page loaded, I was greeted with: > Create and Share Interactive Presentations With Just a PDF and Your Voice I have no idea what this means. Apparently this startup takes "a PDF" and "my voice" and combines them into... something. An Interactive Presentation. Something I'm narrating? What are these good for? What even are they? After reading the rest of the page I feel like I got it (maybe), but hoo boy does that header text need work. An example would be even better. Other than that, I think the visual design is nice, though it's a bit dark/moody for the product goals IMO.
dangerface 9y ago
This post is worthless your only point seems to be "Other people make websites too!" If you think "Stripe's design isn't great design" why not tell people why you think that? That would at least be worth reading and worth writing.
- siddharthdeswal 9y ago
  I can appreciate why you feel my post was worthless. I had a couple points: 1) There's a halo effect surrounding Stripe right now, due to which fairly common stuff that they do will be treated as if it's outstanding, and deserves extra adoration and respect. 2) This = "Stripe's design isn't great design. It's design that a certain people like. If you're saying it's great, then define for whom." What do you think now?
rafialhamd 9y ago
>> Stripe's design isn't great design. It's design that a certain people like. If you're saying it's great, then define for whom. Isn't true that this point is valid for draftsend.com too ? Besides, I'm ONE amongst 'those certain people' WHO LIKE Stripe's design. Since we've starting discussing not only about Stripe's design, but also brought draftsend.com to compare with, here is my humble opinion: With due respect to draftsend.com's designer, it has just few pages with very basic information and resembles a familiar wordpress or bootstrap theme. No doubt that draftsend.com is a GOOD DESIGN. But, it is NOT a GREAT DESIGN EITHER! And draftsend.com is in no way comparable to Stripe's design with its width, breadth and volumetric information. Now going over the Stripe's design... below are good points about Stripe's design: 1. it has a dynamic and fluid theme which keeps the visitor engaged through out the page(s). 2. encourages further readability. 3. design theme and colour is so appealing that continued visit as well as repeated visit(s) don't appear to be boring and brings some sort of freshness each time, though - it's the same design and content. 4. it creates a better image about the company (Stripe). 5. and, it conveys the following: 5.a. the company is meticulous which can be expected from their other deliverables (either product/service). 5.b. the company is adapted to new and emerging trends in design, hence the same could be expected from their other deliverables. 5.c. the company is professional. 5.d. the company can afford to the heavy lifting of such a wonderful and modern design. 5.e. the company is NOT sticky with traditional design. 5.f. the company does NOT fall into a stereo type. ...and others could say a lot as well as better about Stripe's Design!

WA 9y ago

You might enjoy this read: https://medium.com/@chopeh/the-state-of-design-ff5142fb806 https://medium.com/@chopeh/the-state-of-design-ff5142fb806

siddharthdeswal 9y ago
Thank you! Best laugh I've ever had on HN.
- dvlsg 9y ago
  I lost it at the top highlight.
NetOpWibby 9y ago
That was an enlightening read.
superasn 9y ago
Reminds me of an episode of Fraiser where he is all gung-ho about some painting and telling everyone about the greatness of the artist and her artwork, only to find out later that's it is a fake.
bshimmin 9y ago
I did! Perhaps it was inspired a little by http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/AAAAAAAAA http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/AAAAAAAAA! (the baby always kills me)...
bballer 9y ago
Are you sure you want to exist?

NetOpWibby 9y ago

Thanks to my tracker blockers, I don’t see anything better than 1993 Internet.

jaquers 9y ago

I mostly agree with your point that two designs being the same, the bigger more established brand might garner more attention / praise than the other. However, I think design is also easier to get right when you have a good product. Skimmed the blog because it seemed to be mostly fluff and presumably the author does not work at Stripe, but I do consider this a good design for the following reasons (some aesthetic, some practical, not exhaustive): - Dead simple call to action & it speaks to two core audiences. Either you're a developer and you know how this works (create an account), or you're an executive and you know you want to talk to somebody (contact sales). - The diagonal lines are cool because they stand out on the web (filled with vertical and horizontal lines) and they create movement within the design to draw your eyes over to the little illustrations. - The illustration/hero image itself is nice because there's not so much detail that you get bogged down in the solution yourself, but the variety of big brands and different sorts of user experiences allow you to visualize your brand with a slick checkout experience right next to those "big players". - Well-executed typographic contrast. Think colors, sizing, weights, and variation between title-casing and uppercase. This is important because it creates a visual hierarchy, so if you don't want to read the whole page, at least visually you "know" what is important. - Color palate is well suited to the industry. Too lazy to find facts, but in general blues are known to be calm/soothing and green communicates or gives the perception of trust/success. Whether that is your success as a potential customer, or Stripe's success, idk; Just a vague designerish feeling. - Finally, I think it would good given the points above - but the interactive elements really give it the kind of polish that would make me call it "great". IMO, these types of flourishes are signalling quality. Take them away and the site is just fine, but as the author mentions - to most people they give a sense of delight. Not over the top; just subtle, playful little elements. Regarding the link you mentioned; I don't think it's a bad design, but not on the caliber of Stripe's. For me the typography is quite dull, and having read all of the text on the page; it's not really clear to me what valuable service they are providing. My impression is that it's a white-brandable video hosting site, with maybe some version control? I'm not exactly sure because I only gleaned that info from the 2 of the 5 bullet points, which are identical to the other 3 generic features. Anyways, I'm just some guy who flunked out of design college - so take all this crap with a grain of salt.

siddharthdeswal 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

user5994461 9y ago

Summary: Looks like a scam asking for money. Don't know what the product is, all I see is a big page asking for my email address, sign ups and $10 a month. I'd highly suggest that you add some more illustrations/videos/sample on the main page to understand what this is about. Your product needs to look really useful and really good if you want people to sign up on a whim. Maybe replace the "sign up now" link/button with a "see how company X doubled their engagement or sign up now" links. There is nowhere to go from the main page except pay or leave.

siddharthdeswal 9y ago
Not my product, neither am I affiliated in any manner. I just googled "beautiful landing pages" and picked the first one in the first result to make my point.
- user5994461 9y ago
  Understood. The look/theme is alright. It's a modern looking, 3 pages website like there are millions of it. I don't think it's as good as it should be though, to get users to register and pay. We were talking about "design". It can designate many things. Look. Colors. User experience. Conversion.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

phantom_package 9y ago

RE: DraftSend landing page When the page loaded, I was greeted with: > Create and Share Interactive Presentations With Just a PDF and Your Voice I have no idea what this means. Apparently this startup takes "a PDF" and "my voice" and combines them into... something. An Interactive Presentation. Something I'm narrating? What are these good for? What even are they? After reading the rest of the page I feel like I got it (maybe), but hoo boy does that header text need work. An example would be even better. Other than that, I think the visual design is nice, though it's a bit dark/moody for the product goals IMO.

dangerface 9y ago

This post is worthless your only point seems to be "Other people make websites too!" If you think "Stripe's design isn't great design" why not tell people why you think that? That would at least be worth reading and worth writing.

siddharthdeswal 9y ago
I can appreciate why you feel my post was worthless. I had a couple points: 1) There's a halo effect surrounding Stripe right now, due to which fairly common stuff that they do will be treated as if it's outstanding, and deserves extra adoration and respect. 2) This = "Stripe's design isn't great design. It's design that a certain people like. If you're saying it's great, then define for whom." What do you think now?

rafialhamd 9y ago

>> Stripe's design isn't great design. It's design that a certain people like. If you're saying it's great, then define for whom. Isn't true that this point is valid for draftsend.com too ? Besides, I'm ONE amongst 'those certain people' WHO LIKE Stripe's design. Since we've starting discussing not only about Stripe's design, but also brought draftsend.com to compare with, here is my humble opinion: With due respect to draftsend.com's designer, it has just few pages with very basic information and resembles a familiar wordpress or bootstrap theme. No doubt that draftsend.com is a GOOD DESIGN. But, it is NOT a GREAT DESIGN EITHER! And draftsend.com is in no way comparable to Stripe's design with its width, breadth and volumetric information. Now going over the Stripe's design... below are good points about Stripe's design: 1. it has a dynamic and fluid theme which keeps the visitor engaged through out the page(s). 2. encourages further readability. 3. design theme and colour is so appealing that continued visit as well as repeated visit(s) don't appear to be boring and brings some sort of freshness each time, though - it's the same design and content. 4. it creates a better image about the company (Stripe). 5. and, it conveys the following: 5.a. the company is meticulous which can be expected from their other deliverables (either product/service). 5.b. the company is adapted to new and emerging trends in design, hence the same could be expected from their other deliverables. 5.c. the company is professional. 5.d. the company can afford to the heavy lifting of such a wonderful and modern design. 5.e. the company is NOT sticky with traditional design. 5.f. the company does NOT fall into a stereo type. ...and others could say a lot as well as better about Stripe's Design!