[deleted]
Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
31–40 of 49 posts
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#32My problem with this type of article is that while it says design is important, it still propagates a false dichotomy between code and design (or form and function).
The takeaway shouldn't be that you need to find a designer co-founder that cares about design, it should be that YOU, as a technical founder, need to care (and learn) about design.
Developers who launch their startup need to learn about running a business even though that's not their main domain of expertise. So why couldn't they learn about good design as well?
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
A site that is ugly doesn't get used. This, right after talking about Craigslist, a site that enjoys a monthly cycle of "Craigslist sucks, it's so ugly!" ranters who are reliably and continually proven to be clueless.
As mtgentry replied, Craigslist had a huge advantage in being first to market. But now as Craigslist is being supplanted by more niche focused sites, you better believe that good design will be an integral part of those new sites. Refer to http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/345941486/the-spawn-of-cr...
Yeah. I knew someone would call me out for saying the thing about ugly sites right after mentioning Craigslist but I think my point still stands. The only reason I felt I could safely say that was because of your point exactly, imjk. Thanks for saying it better than I could.
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
A site that is ugly doesn't get used. This, right after talking about Craigslist, a site that enjoys a monthly cycle of "Craigslist sucks, it's so ugly!" ranters who are reliably and continually proven to be clueless.
I don't think Craigslist is ugly. Not from the point of design , which is not about looks actually. From the point of cosmetic styling—maybe it is.
Right, same here. But the average person doesn't know how to make a distinction between "this is easy to use and very consistent" and "this is boring and ugly". To most, if it's dull and plain they say it's ugly. I regret mentioning Craigslist noe because we're missing the point. I see now that Criagslist is a special case. It's famous, infamous, and just massively popular. It came out at a time when Yahoo was just as ugly but was still heavily trafficked and people were used to similar designs. If Craigslist were a new player in town then it may not be able to expand beyond San Feansisco. People would visit and immediately be turned off because they're used to all the trappings of Yelp, Thumbtack.com and others. Being cute enough to get attention at first glance goes much farther than I think we realize and if Craigslist were the new guy it wouldn't grab attention at first glance looking how it does.
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
What? I'm pretty sure Apple got their arse kicked all over the block in the 70's and 80's. I strongly agree that it is a competitive advantage, but I don't get this comment.
Apple had "the biggest IPO since Ford" in December 1980, so they certainly weren't getting their arse kicked in the 70s. Things were pretty grim from 85-97 though.
Yes, but that wasn't design related. They had desirable technology and software for the time and they marketed aggressively.
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#36It's very hard to tell when design or functionality makes or breaks a site. I think we shouldn't be asking that question at all. The whole thing is completely situational. For Craigslist the function is most important and credit should go to the back end guys. Something like Twitter would give it to the front end guys. I'm leaving scaling out of the equation for now and assuming all sites will perform the same under…
"A site that is ugly doesn't get used. People always judge a book by its cover especially these days." Are you implying Craigslist is not an ugly site? not trying to be sarcastic, genuine question.
No, I'm speaking for how people who aren't educated in design see things. I personally think its kind of ugly but at the same time I can't say the user experience is bad at all. I can find what I want and filter it pretty easily, the pages load quick as anything, and I generally am able to just get what I want done on Craigslist. That said, I don't use all that often so maybe I'm not the best person to judge the UX of Craigslist. I was just trying to see things the way people like my mother or someone would.
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#37"There is, however, a shortage of good startup designers, at least when it comes to people who have both interaction and product design experience and skill sets. Designers today are being asked to do more than simply build visuals and hand them off to engineers. They are evolving into experts in user research (customer development), information architecture (IA), interaction design (IxD), visual design, and storytelling (copy writing and messaging). They also possess back-end skills and have a thorough understanding of the technology stack that the product is being built on. "
It seems that the definition of a "good designer" includes various technical skills / knowledge, while the definition of a "good developer" does not include design. I've noticed this a few times in startup culture, where people are hesitant to hire UX/designers that do not code.
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#38This article seems ahistorical. It suffers from a lack of awareness regarding how far back some of these trends go. The inaccurate emphasis here is on something unheard of and new: "Technical founders have already become prerequisites in the world of tech startups. Now get ready for the designer founder. The combination of this new duo is going to change the world of tech forever." But this trend is not new for start…
As early as 2004? Twenty years before that Wozniak and Jobs created an archetypal duo of technical and design co-founders.
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
A site that is ugly doesn't get used. This, right after talking about Craigslist, a site that enjoys a monthly cycle of "Craigslist sucks, it's so ugly!" ranters who are reliably and continually proven to be clueless.
As mtgentry replied, Craigslist had a huge advantage in being first to market. But now as Craigslist is being supplanted by more niche focused sites, you better believe that good design will be an integral part of those new sites. Refer to http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/345941486/the-spawn-of-cr...
Not to mention, with apps like Padmapper, Craigslist is quickly becoming a data source with a really lame API (i.e., scraping), rather than a frontend in and of itself.
The existence and popularity of various "Craigslist overlay" sites is plenty of evidence that design and usability is important to users.
Re: Design is becoming a competitive advantage for startups
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple had "the biggest IPO since Ford" in December 1980, so they certainly weren't getting their arse kicked in the 70s. Things were pretty grim from 85-97 though.
Yes, but that wasn't design related. They had desirable technology and software for the time and they marketed aggressively.
Well, Jobs' desire for a small, quiet (fanless) machine drove them to hire Rod Holt, who designed the switching power supply for the Apple ][. Jobs quote from the bio (it's unclear when he said this): "That switching power supply was as revolutionary as the Apple ][ logic board was. Rod doesn't get a lot of credit for this in the history books, but he should. Every computer now uses switching power supplies, and they all rip off Rod's design."
Would the Apple ][ have been as successful without the switching power supply? Hard to say. But even at the Apple ][ stage, Jobs' design sense was making its way into Apple products.