> Hacker News or Stack Overflow are good examples of very successful sites that have horrible visual design. Yeah, to my mind this is bullshit. Reddit is anoth

> Hacker News or Stack Overflow are good examples of very successful sites that have horrible visual design. Yeah, to my mind this is bullshit. Reddit is another oft-quoted "horrible" design. Yahoo, msn also. It almost seems as if all the most popular sites on the planet are "horribly designed". Almost by definition this can't be true. Personally I find both HN and SO great in terms of design. They're extremely easy to navigate, functionality and calls-to-action are clear and obvious. Data is presented in a meaningful and easy-to-read uncluttered manor. I'm not a design student (by any stretch of the imagination) but for the life of me I wouldn't be able to begin to guess what's so bad about either of these sites, unless it's the lack of super-whizzy glossy css3/js/ajax/flash magic that's the problem. Which is absurd, and only really relevant for "creatives". Disclosure: I didn't read the article, so if it states why they're so bad I've missed out!