3 ms·

Clarity of purpose. Focus on functionality. My favorite sites get this right: Hacker News, Facebook, Google, Craigslist, Techmeme, Berkshire Hathaway, Dropbox,

by stevenj 15y ago

Clarity of purpose. Focus on functionality. My favorite sites get this right: Hacker News, Facebook, Google, Craigslist, Techmeme, Berkshire Hathaway, Dropbox, Espn (though I can't stand its automatic video play function). Imo, many areas of design (e.g. graphic design) screw up functionality. "Design is how it works."

wushupork 15y ago
That's good advice. Simplicity is often hard to achieve though with conflicting requirements to make it useful enough.
abbasmehdi 15y ago
Just saw the Berkshire Hathaway site for the first time, and thought "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!??" I don't think I've ever thought in caps lock, but this time I did. This is a company with the highest-priced stock in the world (just below $200k a piece!), and the laundromat across the street from my place has a fancier site. This is an amazing eye opener! Thanks! P.S. I know the site does not seek to gain the firm credibility and if WB started BH today he wouldn't start with a site like this.
egiva 15y ago
I don't think that oversimplifying design into these basic terms like "graphic design", "functionality", or "Berkshire Hathaway", really helps everyone realize just how important design is to a web-based business. The internet came about really late in Berkshire's business cycle, so having a successful website isn't important to their success. If you're business is just getting started, and especially if you're a web-based business, then you should pay special attention to design, and realize that "graphic design" is just a smaller part of what design really means. If your customers realize that a website is nothing more than a graphical interface that helps the user exchange information with a database, then your business is sunk. Design not only facilitates that obvious customer-db interaction, but imbues your product with emotive qualities that make it sexy and desirable. People devote their lives to understanding these topics (see: Steve Jobs), but here's a good link to get started: http://particletree.com/features/the-importance-of-design-in-business/ http://particletree.com/features/the-importance-of-design-in...

by stevenj 15y ago

wushupork 15y ago

That's good advice. Simplicity is often hard to achieve though with conflicting requirements to make it useful enough.

abbasmehdi 15y ago

Just saw the Berkshire Hathaway site for the first time, and thought "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!??" I don't think I've ever thought in caps lock, but this time I did. This is a company with the highest-priced stock in the world (just below $200k a piece!), and the laundromat across the street from my place has a fancier site. This is an amazing eye opener! Thanks! P.S. I know the site does not seek to gain the firm credibility and if WB started BH today he wouldn't start with a site like this.

egiva 15y ago

I don't think that oversimplifying design into these basic terms like "graphic design", "functionality", or "Berkshire Hathaway", really helps everyone realize just how important design is to a web-based business. The internet came about really late in Berkshire's business cycle, so having a successful website isn't important to their success. If you're business is just getting started, and especially if you're a web-based business, then you should pay special attention to design, and realize that "graphic design" is just a smaller part of what design really means. If your customers realize that a website is nothing more than a graphical interface that helps the user exchange information with a database, then your business is sunk. Design not only facilitates that obvious customer-db interaction, but imbues your product with emotive qualities that make it sexy and desirable. People devote their lives to understanding these topics (see: Steve Jobs), but here's a good link to get started: http://particletree.com/features/the-importance-of-design-in-business/ http://particletree.com/features/the-importance-of-design-in...