hacking and gonzo since 2000

Does design really matter?

It seems that functionality beats design. One of my favorite is plentyoffish.com (the biggest dating site on the net). From a designer's perspective the site is a disaster, but yet, the page earns $10 million a year and is developed by only one guy.

This would indicate that a user does not care about design. If you provide users with the what they seek then you don't have to have a good design.

Another example of disastrous design is MySpace - horrible HCI, horrible design, but they have millions of users.

Will this change? Does design matter?

Some indicators tell that the web is moving into a good direction, at least with Facebook and Orkut, both these million-user web-applications are well designed. Basecamp is also a good example of a well designed (and very popular) web application.

Design · Stuff • 13. Jan 2008

4 comments so far

Karim 13. Jan 2008: It's seems you're confusing two things maybe: style and design.
Style is about "beauty", and I agree with you here, people that make money know this :)
But design is really about finding solutions not just decorating.

amix 13. Jan 2008: Karim:
When I say design, I don't mean decorating things. I mean designing things. For example, the way 37 Signals design their products. Or the way apple design their products...

Karim 13. Jan 2008: Amir: yes, justly, that's what I'm talking about too! :)
Look at the website you cited, their design is simple and usable: a menu with search, top, forum and such. Below that a list of people (with pics) that someone might be interested in. and then pagination, followed by a navigation by state, and another navigation menu. simple and very usable IMHO. Don't you agree?

bgfuller 13. Jan 2008: Design is what matters most.