What is surprising (and scary) to me is that corporates such as Yahoo who have lots of money and great talent can only end up with seriously mediocre at best re-designs?
At first reading the user complaints, I just thought "Bah, they would get used to it" (without actually visiting the page first). And then I visited https://my.yahoo.com, I totally agree with those complaints. as a fellow designer, some points I've noticed:
#Poor selection of font sizes
#Poor selection of colors (especially for background)
#Poor application of borders (remember, in design, borders portray complexity (in this case, unwanted).
#Inconsistent design themes (Search button has borders and gradients and shadows, the rest do not)
It seems to me that the design they had in mind was something iOS7-ish (which is actually good due to the minimal information it shows the user at any point) , but ultimately they ended up with something else more complex, confusing and awful.
Either way I wish Yahoo good luck and wouldn't dare to judge an entire company based on this design alone.
So on the money. How does this happen? Mayer's majdate was all about a culture shift, aligning the company to her old digs at Google. But it remains a thoroughly mediocre interface and service (for some reason I have refused to relinquish my Yahoo Mail account).
I think it comes down to 2 things:
A) there's an AOL-esque aspect to Yahoo. I genuinely believe that they don't want to be innovative, because they have such a white-shoe and casual-user demographic trapped in their walled garden. Yahoo doesn't want or need to re-invent ghe wheel.
Ii) Yahoo, as s company, is such a bloated entity. A fresh, interesting, original design concept would have so many layers to penetrate. Hence, the diluted mediocre crap.
Well, in all honesty, design is something of personal preference. But, the 'right design' is the one that strikes a chord with the majority of your users, making them 'feel at home'.
There are a lot of examples I'd like to cite, but, the best example you can use for reference is most of Apple's web design philosophy (P.S - I'm NOT an Apple 'fanboy' though I like their designs). Another one would be Stripe. They have some pretty consistent designs!
As a bonus - Every designer has his/her own version of 'good design rules'. These are just mine :)
-Don't use complexity where it's not needed. Borders and gradients add complexity. (good example: iOS 7)
-Generally, try to use contrasting colors for action buttons (Purchase/Sign up/Subscribe). There is some psychological study associated with the color choice too.
-Once you use a color for a particular type of button (Action, or example) maintain it throughout the site - So your users will know which buttons are important and have side effects (like, costing them money) and which ones don't.
-Contrast is everything. If you use a dark headline, then use a light background. And vice versa. Also, a small black box of 100px x 100px provides more contrast than a mild grey box of 200px x 200px. Contrast is not something that is proportional with colors. Always experiment!
- Sometimes, you get drowned in your own designs that you wouldn't be able to tell them if they are actually good looking or you only feel that way because you bought it/designed it yourself.
-In such situations, close all tabs, watch a movie or perhaps even go for a small cycling session and come back and re-check. You'd be surprised how many flaws you will be able to discover, then :)
I'm only telling you all this since you specifically mentioned you are a non-designer. I hope this helps :)
Comments
What is surprising (and scary) to me is that corporates such as Yahoo who have lots of money and great talent can only end up with seriously mediocre at best re-designs?
At first reading the user complaints, I just thought "Bah, they would get used to it" (without actually visiting the page first). And then I visited https://my.yahoo.com, I totally agree with those complaints. as a fellow designer, some points I've noticed:
#Poor selection of font sizes
#Poor selection of colors (especially for background)
#Poor application of borders (remember, in design, borders portray complexity (in this case, unwanted).
#Inconsistent design themes (Search button has borders and gradients and shadows, the rest do not)
http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/9383/hhew.png
It seems to me that the design they had in mind was something iOS7-ish (which is actually good due to the minimal information it shows the user at any point) , but ultimately they ended up with something else more complex, confusing and awful.
Either way I wish Yahoo good luck and wouldn't dare to judge an entire company based on this design alone.
So on the money. How does this happen? Mayer's majdate was all about a culture shift, aligning the company to her old digs at Google. But it remains a thoroughly mediocre interface and service (for some reason I have refused to relinquish my Yahoo Mail account).
I think it comes down to 2 things:
A) there's an AOL-esque aspect to Yahoo. I genuinely believe that they don't want to be innovative, because they have such a white-shoe and casual-user demographic trapped in their walled garden. Yahoo doesn't want or need to re-invent ghe wheel.
Ii) Yahoo, as s company, is such a bloated entity. A fresh, interesting, original design concept would have so many layers to penetrate. Hence, the diluted mediocre crap.
I think Marissa tries to be personally involved in some design work.
She's pretty hands on. This is an illuminating (though longish) piece regarding her approach: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/marissa-mayer-biography-20...
Still suffering from the changes to Google Apps. Now responding to an email in Gmail requires 3 clicks to open it in a pop out full page view.
The sad part is it isn't easy to shift out once your team is on Apps.
Thanks for giving reasons why this dashboard/home page is not well designed.
Can you point to a page that is well designed in your opinion. That would help me as a non-designer to appreciate your points.
Hey Keith, I'm glad you brought this point up!
Well, in all honesty, design is something of personal preference. But, the 'right design' is the one that strikes a chord with the majority of your users, making them 'feel at home'.
There are a lot of examples I'd like to cite, but, the best example you can use for reference is most of Apple's web design philosophy (P.S - I'm NOT an Apple 'fanboy' though I like their designs). Another one would be Stripe. They have some pretty consistent designs!
As a bonus - Every designer has his/her own version of 'good design rules'. These are just mine :)
-Don't use complexity where it's not needed. Borders and gradients add complexity. (good example: iOS 7)
-Generally, try to use contrasting colors for action buttons (Purchase/Sign up/Subscribe). There is some psychological study associated with the color choice too.
Link: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/color...
-Once you use a color for a particular type of button (Action, or example) maintain it throughout the site - So your users will know which buttons are important and have side effects (like, costing them money) and which ones don't.
-Contrast is everything. If you use a dark headline, then use a light background. And vice versa. Also, a small black box of 100px x 100px provides more contrast than a mild grey box of 200px x 200px. Contrast is not something that is proportional with colors. Always experiment!
- Sometimes, you get drowned in your own designs that you wouldn't be able to tell them if they are actually good looking or you only feel that way because you bought it/designed it yourself.
-In such situations, close all tabs, watch a movie or perhaps even go for a small cycling session and come back and re-check. You'd be surprised how many flaws you will be able to discover, then :)
I'm only telling you all this since you specifically mentioned you are a non-designer. I hope this helps :)
I'm afraid we will see more of those puke-colored gradient backgrounds in the near future...