Comments on: How Bad Design Increases Business http://blog.hireahelper.com/2007/05/05/how-bad-design-increases-business/ Insights on life, moving, and the world from the team at www.HireAHelper.com Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:46:27 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Sabrina http://blog.hireahelper.com/2007/05/05/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-432 Sabrina Thu, 28 May 2009 21:02:28 +0000 http://hireahelper.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-432 The thing that is wrong with this entire article is that you are labeling all designers as worthless. You know that a designer made the Help-U-Sell web-site and the Net-Flix web-site, right? Obviously, especially for NetFlix it required someone with the skills you've listed above. What you need to learn is the distinction between bad/good design and pretty/ugly art. A good design does not mean polished aesthetics and a bad design does not mean poor aesthetics. In fact in design education one of the common things to do is critique designs which "appear" sleek but actual fail to function. I think the designer you hired was just a wannabe hack who equates Photoshop skill to good design. Undoubtedly technical skill is important to design but design is about solving problems and designers should be equipped with conceptual skill as well in order to do that. A good designer will create an appropriate design for the situation; so for you that may involve using unpolished graphics but a good designer will realize that's what your customers desire. This is the difference between the designer and artists. Artists have a style they stick with, they aren't here to serve the people while designers adapt their style for the situation. Also, those examples of "good" designed web-sites you listed look horrible even from an aesthetic sense. Those look like high school multimedia class projects. Instead of focusing on boutiques like HappyCog take a look at the swarm of credible award-winning design consultancies that do work for fortune 500 companies - they understand business. For example Frog and Smart design. The thing that is wrong with this entire article is that you are labeling all designers as worthless. You know that a designer made the Help-U-Sell web-site and the Net-Flix web-site, right? Obviously, especially for NetFlix it required someone with the skills you’ve listed above. What you need to learn is the distinction between bad/good design and pretty/ugly art. A good design does not mean polished aesthetics and a bad design does not mean poor aesthetics. In fact in design education one of the common things to do is critique designs which “appear” sleek but actual fail to function.

I think the designer you hired was just a wannabe hack who equates Photoshop skill to good design. Undoubtedly technical skill is important to design but design is about solving problems and designers should be equipped with conceptual skill as well in order to do that. A good designer will create an appropriate design for the situation; so for you that may involve using unpolished graphics but a good designer will realize that’s what your customers desire. This is the difference between the designer and artists. Artists have a style they stick with, they aren’t here to serve the people while designers adapt their style for the situation.

Also, those examples of “good” designed web-sites you listed look horrible even from an aesthetic sense. Those look like high school multimedia class projects.

Instead of focusing on boutiques like HappyCog take a look at the swarm of credible award-winning design consultancies that do work for fortune 500 companies – they understand business. For example Frog and Smart design.

]]> By: Search Engine Traffic for Blogs - 10 SEO Tips for Amateur Bloggers January 27, 2008 « SoCal Theologica: Theological Musings from the West Coast http://blog.hireahelper.com/2007/05/05/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-340 Search Engine Traffic for Blogs - 10 SEO Tips for Amateur Bloggers January 27, 2008 « SoCal Theologica: Theological Musings from the West Coast Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:06:17 +0000 http://hireahelper.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-340 [...] Go here to read the entire story. To get to Hire A Helper’s blog, go here. [...] [...] Go here to read the entire story. To get to Hire A Helper’s blog, go here. [...]

]]> By: Jeremy http://blog.hireahelper.com/2007/05/05/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-30 Jeremy Tue, 08 May 2007 21:02:44 +0000 http://hireahelper.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-30 the need *FOR (I meant to say) the need *FOR (I meant to say)

]]> By: Jeremy http://blog.hireahelper.com/2007/05/05/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-29 Jeremy Tue, 08 May 2007 21:02:00 +0000 http://hireahelper.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-29 good Lord. I'm so tired of people pointing to Craig's list and MySpace as examples of successful design. in both cases the need what they had to offer MADE UP FOR thier lack of aesthetics. Does that mean every start up shouldn't care about good design? Well maybe so... if you really believe your product or service is filling a void or tapping into a market where you can't HELP but be successful. Also... there's just dumb-luck when it comes to success. None of this means that you *should* neglect design when starting a site or brand or product. good Lord. I’m so tired of people pointing to Craig’s list and MySpace as examples of successful design. in both cases the need what they had to offer MADE UP FOR thier lack of aesthetics. Does that mean every start up shouldn’t care about good design? Well maybe so… if you really believe your product or service is filling a void or tapping into a market where you can’t HELP but be successful. Also… there’s just dumb-luck when it comes to success. None of this means that you *should* neglect design when starting a site or brand or product.

]]> By: Nicholas http://blog.hireahelper.com/2007/05/05/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-28 Nicholas Tue, 08 May 2007 16:27:59 +0000 http://hireahelper.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/how-bad-design-increases-business/#comment-28 Just look at MySpace -- terrible design, terrible code... allows users to upload whatever ugly content they want. Yay. Just look at MySpace — terrible design, terrible code… allows users to upload whatever ugly content they want. Yay.

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