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1 - the link between blogs of all sorts and the bottom-line is tenuous at best. If you're an ad revenue business, you can make the argument that all traffic has

1 - the link between blogs of all sorts and the bottom-line is tenuous at best. If you're an ad revenue business, you can make the argument that all traffic has an impact on the bottom line, but suffice it to say that none of the advertising supported start-ups I have been involved in have seen sustained valuable traffic referred in from a blog. 2 - Normal blogs and tech blogs don't write articles that go into detail on the minutae of the design elements in a product's UI. That's limited to design blogs. 3 - Personally, I'm getting kind of tired of the default defense of most designers to this sort of criticism ("because Apple"). Saying that Apple is where it is because of Design not only ignores the market, product and business realities that have lead to Apple's (recent) success - it also ignores the many ways in which Apple's design is sub-standard or even bad (resulting in people copying bad design patterns "because Apple did it").

josegonzalez 14y ago
Design absolutely matters when a consumer is interfacing with your application, and pixel-pushing is actually quite important. It can be used as a talking point - the SeatGeek application is extremely well-designed for it's vertical, and is meant to be pleasing to use (thereby hopefully driving more eyeballs/higher conversion). Internally, I think it's also a way to have the designers/developers proud of something they helped accomplish. No, I didn't perform any of the design on the SeatGeek app, but you'll bet your ass I'm not complaining about the three hours I spent uploading about 100 - outsourced and therefore not named well enough for me to automate it - logos to S3 for use in the app. It's a source of pride, and it's what staves off the burnout. Reference: I work on Operations at SeatGeek, and after slicing up a PSD to very exacting specifications two years ago, I know exactly what kind of a difference design can make re: tech blogs/traffic.

josegonzalez 14y ago

Design absolutely matters when a consumer is interfacing with your application, and pixel-pushing is actually quite important. It can be used as a talking point - the SeatGeek application is extremely well-designed for it's vertical, and is meant to be pleasing to use (thereby hopefully driving more eyeballs/higher conversion). Internally, I think it's also a way to have the designers/developers proud of something they helped accomplish. No, I didn't perform any of the design on the SeatGeek app, but you'll bet your ass I'm not complaining about the three hours I spent uploading about 100 - outsourced and therefore not named well enough for me to automate it - logos to S3 for use in the app. It's a source of pride, and it's what staves off the burnout. Reference: I work on Operations at SeatGeek, and after slicing up a PSD to very exacting specifications two years ago, I know exactly what kind of a difference design can make re: tech blogs/traffic.