4 ms·

I find it pretty funny when designers have it in their mandate to make a number look as cool as possible. You see it on dashboards or all kinds of things like

I find it pretty funny when designers have it in their mandate to make a number look as cool as possible. You see it on dashboards or all kinds of things like this. I think it would be a good design challenge. Make a decimal number look cool. No other constraints.

rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
See, that’s a real problem with modern day design: it’s all about making things look cool instead of just no-bullshit functional.
- victorbjorklund 3y ago
  Pretty sure no one outside of stripe has any use of real time revenue for only one day on an aggregated level. Doesnt have to be functional because people dont really "use" it. It is just for fun
  - rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
    Doesn’t matter if it’s for fun. The function here is to show information so in that regard the design failed because it makes you go through hoops irrelevant to the goal
    - coffeedoughnuts 3y ago
      with respect, I disagree that the function here is to show information. the (primary) function here is to advertise Stripe, and they obviously believe the aesthetic will increase the chance that viewers of the advert with share it with their friends and coworkers, increasing the effectiveness if the advert. if this was a page they provided to all their customers, all year round, as their means of monitoring their own sales then I agree that this is a terrible design. but they have a fairly utilitarian dashboard UI for that function.
      - rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
        People are already talking about how this design crashes their browsers so even the function of advertising isn’t being fulfilled. Also you clicked the link because of the clickbaity title and the info it suggested it contains, not because of the design.
        coffeedoughnuts 3y ago
        The design isn't crashing their browser, the implementation of the design is. You could argue that the design is simply not implementable with current technology to serve the widest array of users (this is doubtful), and possibly Stripe's marketing team made a judgement that they just didn't care about that - but you seem to be laying quite a lot at a designer's door there. I would guess that they are prioritising standing out to a niche audience of developers with expensive laptops over casting a wide net, which would be reasonable for this kind of campaign. Perhaps what you dislike is the marketing campaign and it's goals, rather than the nebulous "bad design" of the page? And, for the record, I clicked the link because it was at the top of HN and I was bored. How did it get to the top of HN? because a lot of people saw it and thought it was cool. If they took a more utilitarian approach, would that have happened? I guess we just don't know.
        rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
        So what if it was a designer who acted on the whims of a marketing team? The criticism was directed at the design not at a person. Regardless of their intended audience the site is still representative of the point I wanted to make about modern day design. And no, not everyone is clicking on all the front page links of the same score (you included) so your argument is kinda weak and something must have caught your attention about the title.
        coffeedoughnuts 3y ago
        My point was that it seems you are critiquing the design of the page as if it's purpose is to display sales data, and I was suggesting that it's purpose is not to display sales data, but actually to simply advertise Stripe. When judged by this outcome, the design is (arguably, it seems) more successful. Regardless, I find no joy or purpose in talking to someone that tells me I'm incorrect when I tell them my motivations for doing something. It betrays a certain ignorance on your part. I think let's just leave the thread there. Have a good rest of your day.
- cantSpellSober 3y ago
  False dichotomy, this an advertisement, would it be on the front page if it was just bare HTML instead of a pander-to-your-audience retro look? Good design can establish identity without totally ruining the UX.
  - rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
    Lots of important info get posted in HN everyday without the fancy design that takes a lot of clicks and waiting times, so how could you assume it won’t make it to the front page? This is why people need to stop using the “false dichotomy” card in every discussion. It’s so devoid of rigor in thinking and is always used lazily to frame another person’s comment in a paradigm that it wasn’t intended to be framed.
    - stuartjohnson12 3y ago
      Have you considered that the design is more important than the data in this context? I mean, I sure don't care worth a damn whether there are 100, 1000, or 10000 orders being placed per second. It's a meaningless figure to me.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
        Your first sentence is exactly what it means to think in terms of form over function. There is exactly nothing unique about the 80s pixellated design but there is about the data being presented, which is actually valuable to many possible parties: * competitors * creditors * investors * employees * academics * journalists * policymakers in financial services The design is not valuable to anyone, even to those who have no serious business with the data but who somehow feel the need to defend the design in the comments section, because regardless of the design they would visit the link anyway for the information it contains and because of the clickbaity title, not because of the design.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- adolph 3y ago
  Similar to the concept of “user as the product,” when data is made to look cool the purpose of the data is to attract attention, not be the object of attention. Is any person looking at that “live dashboard” as an actionable data source?
  - rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
    Competitors of stripe would, to set their own targets. Creditors of stripe can use it to get a general idea of whether they made any money to pay their loans with. Investors of stripe for the same purposes but in expectation of dividends or increase of market value of their equity. Academics for research, journalists for reportage… there are plenty of people out there other than design nerds.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- brlewis 3y ago
  The problem that people make quick judgements based on appearance is not modern. I also would like to just make things functional and have people quickly see the value, but unfortunately we're stuck with the need to also make things look cool.
  - rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
    Actually it took a while to make that judgment because the numbers took a while to show up
- keiferski 3y ago
  I wish this were true. I am dying for the late 90s/early 2000s weird web design, as I am so bored of the typical boring website design today.
- stemlord 3y ago
  Your emotional response to the ways things look and feel is a "function" as valid as a button or a slider. Actually, it's more functional in the digital ecosystsm where everything is a symbolic abstraction of light except for your emotional response to their meanings-- it's in fact the only real outcome of the design intent. So if you see it as a problem and not a strength of modern visual design you are fully clueless, no offense. "You… go to your closet, and you select… I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back, but what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns, and then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it?… who showed cerulean military jackets... And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room… from a pile of 'stuff.'"
  - fragmede 3y ago
    -Devil Wears Prada https://artdepartmental.com/blog/devil-wears-prada-cerulean-monologue/ https://artdepartmental.com/blog/devil-wears-prada-cerulean-...

rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago

See, that’s a real problem with modern day design: it’s all about making things look cool instead of just no-bullshit functional.

victorbjorklund 3y ago
Pretty sure no one outside of stripe has any use of real time revenue for only one day on an aggregated level. Doesnt have to be functional because people dont really "use" it. It is just for fun
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
  Doesn’t matter if it’s for fun. The function here is to show information so in that regard the design failed because it makes you go through hoops irrelevant to the goal
  - coffeedoughnuts 3y ago
    with respect, I disagree that the function here is to show information. the (primary) function here is to advertise Stripe, and they obviously believe the aesthetic will increase the chance that viewers of the advert with share it with their friends and coworkers, increasing the effectiveness if the advert. if this was a page they provided to all their customers, all year round, as their means of monitoring their own sales then I agree that this is a terrible design. but they have a fairly utilitarian dashboard UI for that function.
    - rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
      People are already talking about how this design crashes their browsers so even the function of advertising isn’t being fulfilled. Also you clicked the link because of the clickbaity title and the info it suggested it contains, not because of the design.
      - coffeedoughnuts 3y ago
        The design isn't crashing their browser, the implementation of the design is. You could argue that the design is simply not implementable with current technology to serve the widest array of users (this is doubtful), and possibly Stripe's marketing team made a judgement that they just didn't care about that - but you seem to be laying quite a lot at a designer's door there. I would guess that they are prioritising standing out to a niche audience of developers with expensive laptops over casting a wide net, which would be reasonable for this kind of campaign. Perhaps what you dislike is the marketing campaign and it's goals, rather than the nebulous "bad design" of the page? And, for the record, I clicked the link because it was at the top of HN and I was bored. How did it get to the top of HN? because a lot of people saw it and thought it was cool. If they took a more utilitarian approach, would that have happened? I guess we just don't know.
        rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
        So what if it was a designer who acted on the whims of a marketing team? The criticism was directed at the design not at a person. Regardless of their intended audience the site is still representative of the point I wanted to make about modern day design. And no, not everyone is clicking on all the front page links of the same score (you included) so your argument is kinda weak and something must have caught your attention about the title.
        coffeedoughnuts 3y ago
        My point was that it seems you are critiquing the design of the page as if it's purpose is to display sales data, and I was suggesting that it's purpose is not to display sales data, but actually to simply advertise Stripe. When judged by this outcome, the design is (arguably, it seems) more successful. Regardless, I find no joy or purpose in talking to someone that tells me I'm incorrect when I tell them my motivations for doing something. It betrays a certain ignorance on your part. I think let's just leave the thread there. Have a good rest of your day.
cantSpellSober 3y ago
False dichotomy, this an advertisement, would it be on the front page if it was just bare HTML instead of a pander-to-your-audience retro look? Good design can establish identity without totally ruining the UX.
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
  Lots of important info get posted in HN everyday without the fancy design that takes a lot of clicks and waiting times, so how could you assume it won’t make it to the front page? This is why people need to stop using the “false dichotomy” card in every discussion. It’s so devoid of rigor in thinking and is always used lazily to frame another person’s comment in a paradigm that it wasn’t intended to be framed.
  - stuartjohnson12 3y ago
    Have you considered that the design is more important than the data in this context? I mean, I sure don't care worth a damn whether there are 100, 1000, or 10000 orders being placed per second. It's a meaningless figure to me.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
      Your first sentence is exactly what it means to think in terms of form over function. There is exactly nothing unique about the 80s pixellated design but there is about the data being presented, which is actually valuable to many possible parties: * competitors * creditors * investors * employees * academics * journalists * policymakers in financial services The design is not valuable to anyone, even to those who have no serious business with the data but who somehow feel the need to defend the design in the comments section, because regardless of the design they would visit the link anyway for the information it contains and because of the clickbaity title, not because of the design.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
adolph 3y ago
Similar to the concept of “user as the product,” when data is made to look cool the purpose of the data is to attract attention, not be the object of attention. Is any person looking at that “live dashboard” as an actionable data source?
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
  Competitors of stripe would, to set their own targets. Creditors of stripe can use it to get a general idea of whether they made any money to pay their loans with. Investors of stripe for the same purposes but in expectation of dividends or increase of market value of their equity. Academics for research, journalists for reportage… there are plenty of people out there other than design nerds.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
brlewis 3y ago
The problem that people make quick judgements based on appearance is not modern. I also would like to just make things functional and have people quickly see the value, but unfortunately we're stuck with the need to also make things look cool.
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
  Actually it took a while to make that judgment because the numbers took a while to show up
keiferski 3y ago
I wish this were true. I am dying for the late 90s/early 2000s weird web design, as I am so bored of the typical boring website design today.
stemlord 3y ago
Your emotional response to the ways things look and feel is a "function" as valid as a button or a slider. Actually, it's more functional in the digital ecosystsm where everything is a symbolic abstraction of light except for your emotional response to their meanings-- it's in fact the only real outcome of the design intent. So if you see it as a problem and not a strength of modern visual design you are fully clueless, no offense. "You… go to your closet, and you select… I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back, but what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns, and then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it?… who showed cerulean military jackets... And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room… from a pile of 'stuff.'"
- fragmede 3y ago
  -Devil Wears Prada https://artdepartmental.com/blog/devil-wears-prada-cerulean-monologue/ https://artdepartmental.com/blog/devil-wears-prada-cerulean-...