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Crappy design + twitter bootstrap default = tab closed. If you are serious about releasing a product ffs make sure it's polished. If the attention to detail I s

by jenius 14y ago

Crappy design + twitter bootstrap default = tab closed. If you are serious about releasing a product ffs make sure it's polished. If the attention to detail I see in the splash page is similar to the attention to detail in the actual product (which is what I assume automatically), my faith in it is close to zero. This is ESPECIALLY important when I'm authorizing you with access to my emails -- and there is no way I would do that for someone that I assume is not serious about their product.

haldean 14y ago
This seems to be an unpopular idea but I completely agree. I don't mind the Bootstrap default theme, but the icon is bad enough that I lose trust in it.
Estragon 14y ago
My taste for design is pretty weak, so I'm always interested in comments like this. The design looks OK to me. What are the problems with it?
- kreek 14y ago
  The main issue, for me, is that "Gmvault Gmail Backup" and the logo are unbalanced. The logo is too big, and its colors could be more sophisticated. If those things were cleaned up it would look fine (unless you're allergic to boostrap).
ardillamorris 14y ago
I think you are misjudging. What if he spent a lot of time in the product making sure it works well without too much care for "shininess"? If anything, using twitter bootstrap shows that he cared a bit to make it look usable from a splash site point of view. I think we should give feedback on how the product is actually working rather than complaining that he's using twitter bootstrap.
- zoobert 14y ago
  Thanks for the support. I am not a designer, I am not working full time on this product and my free time is quite limited. Still I spent lots of time designing the logo. I kind of like it as it is very simple and tells you what the product is. Regarding the website, yes I used bootstrap because it is convenient and give you a good modern look quickly. I am not a web designer and didn't want to spend 60% of my project time on that part. For the moment I prefer to spend more time on the tool itself. If somebody wants to help to improve the website and the documentation please contact me.
swaits 14y ago
You left out the part where you were swirling your wine in its glass and adjusting your top hat while angling your nose sharply toward the sky. HN is a place where lots of launches happen. A place where open mindedness is a plus. Seriously.. if this is actually your attitude, you might miss some cool things. Take a step away from the hive mindset every now and then.
- jenius 14y ago
  There's no hive mindset here - I just looked at the page, noticed that it had really poor and sloppy design, and assumed that it was a poor and sloppy product. It's called 'judging a book by it's cover' and is something that everyone does automatically (regardless of the classic advice). Craigslist aside, you'll be hard pressed to find a successful product that has no attention paid to design whatsoever. Design is important, and it makes me really sad to see it neglected, and so many people supporting not caring about design here (as indicated by comments like this and downvotes)
  - icebraining 14y ago
    Design is important, but this project has a decent design, your prejudice against Bootstrap -which I'm pretty sure most people don't share- notwithstanding. The typography is decent, the utility of the project is immediately understood (without even having to scroll), the call to action is present and it's two clicks from the main page to having the application downloading. You're advocating for "prettiness," which is frankly the least important part of design.
jenius 14y ago
Wow, really surprised this was downvoted. Perhaps it came off as too judgmental and arrogant - if that's the case I very much apologize - didn't intend it to be like that. Just a little tough love : ) I thought people here valued polish and attention to detail... while this may or may not be a fine product, nobody can deny that there was absolutely no effort put into the design. This is really significant - all the downvotes here indicate to me "fuck design, we don't care how your product looks" which is really backwards for hacker news...
- boreacrat 14y ago
  In my experience most open source tools like this have a sentence-long description on their sourceforge page or a brief introduction on their github repo, which puts this miles ahead in terms of design effort.

by jenius 14y ago

haldean 14y ago

This seems to be an unpopular idea but I completely agree. I don't mind the Bootstrap default theme, but the icon is bad enough that I lose trust in it.

Estragon 14y ago

My taste for design is pretty weak, so I'm always interested in comments like this. The design looks OK to me. What are the problems with it?

kreek 14y ago
The main issue, for me, is that "Gmvault Gmail Backup" and the logo are unbalanced. The logo is too big, and its colors could be more sophisticated. If those things were cleaned up it would look fine (unless you're allergic to boostrap).

ardillamorris 14y ago

I think you are misjudging. What if he spent a lot of time in the product making sure it works well without too much care for "shininess"? If anything, using twitter bootstrap shows that he cared a bit to make it look usable from a splash site point of view. I think we should give feedback on how the product is actually working rather than complaining that he's using twitter bootstrap.

zoobert 14y ago
Thanks for the support. I am not a designer, I am not working full time on this product and my free time is quite limited. Still I spent lots of time designing the logo. I kind of like it as it is very simple and tells you what the product is. Regarding the website, yes I used bootstrap because it is convenient and give you a good modern look quickly. I am not a web designer and didn't want to spend 60% of my project time on that part. For the moment I prefer to spend more time on the tool itself. If somebody wants to help to improve the website and the documentation please contact me.

swaits 14y ago

You left out the part where you were swirling your wine in its glass and adjusting your top hat while angling your nose sharply toward the sky. HN is a place where lots of launches happen. A place where open mindedness is a plus. Seriously.. if this is actually your attitude, you might miss some cool things. Take a step away from the hive mindset every now and then.

jenius 14y ago
There's no hive mindset here - I just looked at the page, noticed that it had really poor and sloppy design, and assumed that it was a poor and sloppy product. It's called 'judging a book by it's cover' and is something that everyone does automatically (regardless of the classic advice). Craigslist aside, you'll be hard pressed to find a successful product that has no attention paid to design whatsoever. Design is important, and it makes me really sad to see it neglected, and so many people supporting not caring about design here (as indicated by comments like this and downvotes)
- icebraining 14y ago
  Design is important, but this project has a decent design, your prejudice against Bootstrap -which I'm pretty sure most people don't share- notwithstanding. The typography is decent, the utility of the project is immediately understood (without even having to scroll), the call to action is present and it's two clicks from the main page to having the application downloading. You're advocating for "prettiness," which is frankly the least important part of design.

jenius 14y ago

Wow, really surprised this was downvoted. Perhaps it came off as too judgmental and arrogant - if that's the case I very much apologize - didn't intend it to be like that. Just a little tough love : ) I thought people here valued polish and attention to detail... while this may or may not be a fine product, nobody can deny that there was absolutely no effort put into the design. This is really significant - all the downvotes here indicate to me "fuck design, we don't care how your product looks" which is really backwards for hacker news...

boreacrat 14y ago
In my experience most open source tools like this have a sentence-long description on their sourceforge page or a brief introduction on their github repo, which puts this miles ahead in terms of design effort.