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YC Facelift: Pebble

kyrobeshay.com

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Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#11

Post by kyro »

ericabiz wrote: post #8

A couple things about this one that didn't click with me: 1) You mention "iPhone" at the top. Sorry, I've already clicked "Back"--I'm an Android user. Except Pebble is the first thing I've ever funded via Kickstarter, and I'm ridiculously excited about it, so I'm clearly in their target market. 2) I don't get the "Beam your music, Scotty." part--it's not the biggest draw for me (and I'm not a Star Wars/Trek person, d…

Fair criticisms. However, you're speaking, presumably, from the perspective of a developer – someone who'll be writing apps for and fiddling with their Pebble. I designed this from the perspective of a consumer who intends to purchase the product because of its looks and the apps available for it already. The iDevices are not advertised in a way that directly appeals to tinkerers and developers, but rather to everyday people who want a cool device that does cool things. Of course, I'm assuming who Pebble's target market is, and I could very well be wrong.

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#12

Post by eel »

How did you decide what to include on the page? One thing that I noticed was that you removed the news mentions from this facelift, but the one you did last week has news mentions.

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#13

Post by justjimmy »

Just wanted to give my 2 cents:

What you are doing is really dangerous. "In an effort to refine my design skills, I’ve decided each week or so to redesign the landing page of a YC company I dig and whose website I don’t feel so similarly about."

Doing a facelift on just the landing page, or rearranging elements around a page is not design. It's a subset of design. What's worse, is that these redesigns you offer gives zero context, no interaction, no brief, no reasoning. It's purely visual reformatting. Every placement of content, layout has a reason – you need to provide those in order for us, the reader, to understand your thought process and why you did the things you did.

I'd suggest taking it a step further to give more 'meat' to your posts. Use services like Invisionapp to create clickable hotspots to allow users to explore the redesigned site. Offer your thoughts as you go through the process.

A simple image with a few words on the product and why it's awesome doesn't really tell us anything about your process.

(Design is about solving problems – you also need to identify what is wrong with the original design, then offer your solution and explain why they are better)

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#14

Post by pault »

I don't think there is anything wrong with what you are doing, but I hope people understand that there are many, many talented designers out there working for companies with horrendous websites. It's very easy to make a PSD mockup of a single landing page working in a vacuum. However, see how that pretty PSD looks after making its way past meddling founders, overworked devs that don't give a damn about aesthetics, and technology constraints. Building beautiful websites in a business environment is hard.

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#15

Post by astrodust »

ericabiz wrote: post #8

A couple things about this one that didn't click with me: 1) You mention "iPhone" at the top. Sorry, I've already clicked "Back"--I'm an Android user. Except Pebble is the first thing I've ever funded via Kickstarter, and I'm ridiculously excited about it, so I'm clearly in their target market. 2) I don't get the "Beam your music, Scotty." part--it's not the biggest draw for me (and I'm not a Star Wars/Trek person, d…

It's interesting you say "I'm an Android user" instead of "I have an Android phone".

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#16

Post by aaronkwhite »

I really like the clean design and simple color palette, the one thing I would address is the Typography. You've clearly chosen a non-standard typeset, however I think it's extremely understated in this design.

There are some really good points about not highlighting both iOS & Android as supported platforms (Android has a much larger user base). One of the really cool things about the Pebble, is that you can grab apps for it or build your own and this is really lost in the design you have.

I love that you are taking on these types of projects/exercises! Don't get caught up in all the negative bias, you'll never please everyone... Would love to see an update to this design, to see how you execute with this type of feedback. Keep it Up!

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#17

Post by ericabiz »

kyro wrote: post #11
ericabiz wrote: post #8

A couple things about this one that didn't click with me: 1) You mention "iPhone" at the top. Sorry, I've already clicked "Back"--I'm an Android user. Except Pebble is the first thing I've ever funded via Kickstarter, and I'm ridiculously excited about it, so I'm clearly in their target market. 2) I don't get the "Beam your music, Scotty." part--it's not the biggest draw for me (and I'm not a Star Wars/Trek person, d…

Fair criticisms. However, you're speaking, presumably, from the perspective of a developer – someone who'll be writing apps for and fiddling with their Pebble. I designed this from the perspective of a consumer who intends to purchase the product because of its looks and the apps available for it already. The iDevices are not advertised in a way that directly appeals to tinkerers and developers, but rather to everyda…

Probably not, actually--although that's a fair guess based on both the content of my post and the fact that it resides on Hacker News. I'm swamped with my own business currently. I'm more of the "consumer interested in the looks and apps" category.

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#18

Post by kyro »

justjimmy wrote: post #13

Just wanted to give my 2 cents: What you are doing is really dangerous. "In an effort to refine my design skills, I’ve decided each week or so to redesign the landing page of a YC company I dig and whose website I don’t feel so similarly about." Doing a facelift on just the landing page, or rearranging elements around a page is not design. It's a subset of design. What's worse, is that these redesigns you offer gives…

Thanks for the feedback. You're not the first to suggest the need to include my reasons for design decisions I've made with these. I'll work on that for the next one.

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#19

Post by edash »

justjimmy wrote: post #13

Just wanted to give my 2 cents: What you are doing is really dangerous. "In an effort to refine my design skills, I’ve decided each week or so to redesign the landing page of a YC company I dig and whose website I don’t feel so similarly about." Doing a facelift on just the landing page, or rearranging elements around a page is not design. It's a subset of design. What's worse, is that these redesigns you offer gives…

I agree that an explanation would be an interesting glimpse into the designer's process. However, the author clearly put more thought into this than simply "rearranging elements around a page."

The "Quickstart" link was removed, a menu was created below the main graphic with various uses described, applications (and their practicality) were featured much more clearly than in the previous design. All the changes I noticed seemed thoughtful and intentional, both from a design as well as a marketing perspective.

So sure, an explanation would certainly add to the post and spur more discussion. However, the author has demonstrated that they know what they're doing and should be spared a lecture on what design is or isn't.

Re: YC Facelift: Pebble

#20

Post by jwoah12 »

astrodust wrote: post #15
ericabiz wrote: post #8

A couple things about this one that didn't click with me: 1) You mention "iPhone" at the top. Sorry, I've already clicked "Back"--I'm an Android user. Except Pebble is the first thing I've ever funded via Kickstarter, and I'm ridiculously excited about it, so I'm clearly in their target market. 2) I don't get the "Beam your music, Scotty." part--it's not the biggest draw for me (and I'm not a Star Wars/Trek person, d…

It's interesting you say "I'm an Android user" instead of "I have an Android phone".

Why?
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