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What is so "beautiful" about this? Honest question. 1) So much dead real estate. 2) The buttons the same as input fields. Only difference is color but there's

What is so "beautiful" about this? Honest question. 1) So much dead real estate. 2) The buttons the same as input fields. Only difference is color but there's no distinguishing otherwise. 3) Strange choice of font. Seems like they're going for a typewriter feel, but I'm not sure how that's useful for a website. My opinion of course, but I don't really see the aesthetic appeal of a typewriter look here.

iLoch 12y ago
The design is absolutely awful. I would be very surprised to learn that any of these designers are actually familiar with UX design, let alone web design. I'm not an evangelist of typical web design these days - I think there's often too much emphasis on graphics. It looks nice, but it's exactly useful - BUT, it's still much better than this. This seems to be.. hmm.. a boring concoction of void space and meaningless alternatives to well known design patterns. But maybe that's what it's got going for it. Medium is a good example of Ello's design done right; you can focus on content and make text look beautiful - but it's not easy and you probably won't accomplish it with a generic monospace font (not hating the typewriter look, but it's poorly executed). The real problem I see with Ello from a business perspective is that they don't have one. Where's the business? You're not selling ads, you're not selling your users information, they aren't buying anything (and won't) - where will the money come from?
- skymt 12y ago
  They plan to eventually sell features a la carte: https://ello.co/wtf/post/about-ello https://ello.co/wtf/post/about-ello
  - iLoch 12y ago
    Yeah I saw that. I don't think that's going to work. People are really used to not paying for things, unfortunately. Also - your target demographic as a social network is usually young people from 13-21, and we don't have a payment solution for most of those users. I'm gonna have a hard time justifying the credit card purchase to my parents if I'm 14 years old. "What's it for?" "So I can reblog on my Ello" "Sorry, what? No."
ChrisAntaki 12y ago
The beauty resides in the privacy. >> It has been dubbed the "anti-Facebook" network because of a pledge to carry no adverts or sell user data.
- ams6110 12y ago
  Privacy and social networking are irreconcilable. If you want to keep something private, don't post it on a social networking site.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  Words, words, words. How many times a start-up pledges something (like, being there to actually solve a problem for users) only to get to "an exit" and disappear, selling on shutting down the product? Even if they really believe what they say (for which their cliché-laden copy is a negative evidence in my book), investors will want their returns. I don't think they're gonna pull this off with micropayments. I need more than a pledge to start believing in a VC-backed startup.
  - ChrisAntaki 12y ago
    With time, we'll see if the beauty is skin deep.
keithg 12y ago
Looks tumblr-ish with a splash of Facebook thrown in. Or maybe tumblr/twitter hybrid?
- ddw 12y ago
  Yeah a bit of each but with half the features.

iLoch 12y ago

The design is absolutely awful. I would be very surprised to learn that any of these designers are actually familiar with UX design, let alone web design. I'm not an evangelist of typical web design these days - I think there's often too much emphasis on graphics. It looks nice, but it's exactly useful - BUT, it's still much better than this. This seems to be.. hmm.. a boring concoction of void space and meaningless alternatives to well known design patterns. But maybe that's what it's got going for it. Medium is a good example of Ello's design done right; you can focus on content and make text look beautiful - but it's not easy and you probably won't accomplish it with a generic monospace font (not hating the typewriter look, but it's poorly executed). The real problem I see with Ello from a business perspective is that they don't have one. Where's the business? You're not selling ads, you're not selling your users information, they aren't buying anything (and won't) - where will the money come from?

skymt 12y ago
They plan to eventually sell features a la carte: https://ello.co/wtf/post/about-ello https://ello.co/wtf/post/about-ello
- iLoch 12y ago
  Yeah I saw that. I don't think that's going to work. People are really used to not paying for things, unfortunately. Also - your target demographic as a social network is usually young people from 13-21, and we don't have a payment solution for most of those users. I'm gonna have a hard time justifying the credit card purchase to my parents if I'm 14 years old. "What's it for?" "So I can reblog on my Ello" "Sorry, what? No."

ChrisAntaki 12y ago

The beauty resides in the privacy. >> It has been dubbed the "anti-Facebook" network because of a pledge to carry no adverts or sell user data.

ams6110 12y ago
Privacy and social networking are irreconcilable. If you want to keep something private, don't post it on a social networking site.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
TeMPOraL 12y ago
Words, words, words. How many times a start-up pledges something (like, being there to actually solve a problem for users) only to get to "an exit" and disappear, selling on shutting down the product? Even if they really believe what they say (for which their cliché-laden copy is a negative evidence in my book), investors will want their returns. I don't think they're gonna pull this off with micropayments. I need more than a pledge to start believing in a VC-backed startup.
- ChrisAntaki 12y ago
  With time, we'll see if the beauty is skin deep.

keithg 12y ago

Looks tumblr-ish with a splash of Facebook thrown in. Or maybe tumblr/twitter hybrid?

ddw 12y ago
Yeah a bit of each but with half the features.