Comments on: Why most startups suck – on doing better through design

By: Think original | acidlabs

Think original | acidlabs — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:34:38 +0000

[...] want to read about Stephen Collins or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! WebBreakStuff get it absolutely right with their post today on Web 2.0 startups and the scourge that is wanting to be the next X (where X [...]

By: Webreakstuff » Fixing web-based products through design

Webreakstuff » Fixing web-based products through design — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:00:51 +0000

[...] Jeff highlights something I think about frequently and wrote about here – how most companies ignore design until late in the product development process, usually resulting in poorer products. In fact, there doesnt’t seem to be a lot of companies working on the web willing to include design (maybe a proper definition of design is in order) in the early stages of planning. [...]

By: Clark Valberg » What “design” is all about.

Clark Valberg » What “design” is all about. — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 02:12:31 +0000

[...] [its not about the] …” large type, gradient and rounded-corner design, but the understand user needs, develop meaningful experiences design. Iâ€™m talking about the art of tailoring products to the necessities of the user, creating emotional connections and building compelling solutions. ” — Fred Oliveira [...]

By: Successful Blog - Don’t Design for Comments: Design to Give Readers an Experience

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 14:45:00 +0000

[...] This morning I read an article from We Break Stuff on design. [...]

By: Danny-T

Danny-T — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:18:35 +0000

Whilst I do agree wholeheartedly, I find it somewhat dismaying that ad driven business-modelled, company X clones do seem to perform so well whilst paying very little regard to usability and experience.

MySpace – wtf
YouTube – okay I can figure out how to play the vids, but what do the rest of the site features do?
FriendsReunited – has been forced to shoe-horn additional featues into a dated setup
Digg – at the risk of being flamed I really didn’t find this too intuitive off the bat or even now
etc…

Sites like MySpace, I believe, get where they have by massive corporate backing (Murdoch) and being able to take advantage of traditional forms of business practice and marketing, if you have the budget to advertise everywhere you’ll get the eyeballs you’re after. I would apportion some success also to being the first to get the ball-rolling in a big way (YouTube) as another success factor. YouTube and MySpace certainly aren’t the best-of-breed, however they were financially backed and early to do what they do.

Unfortunately smaller start-ups still have to rely on things such as mind-blowing design and usability with an objective of getting the word-of-mouth required to “make it”. All very David vs Goliath no?

By: Think original | acidlabs

Think original | acidlabs — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 02:48:25 +0000

[...] WebBreakStuff get it absolutely right with their post today on Web 2.0 startups and the scourge that is wanting to be the next X (where X is one of Myspace, Facebook, Flickr or Delicious). [...]

By: Benjamin David

Benjamin David — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:25:10 +0000

I agree with you, the number of sites that popup everyday on Buzzshout is amazing. I would say that a clone can be interesting when it solves a real problem, such as international language support. Many services like Flickr or Facebook are great but in France, most people just don’t use them, because most people don’t feel comfortable with English. Then a clone such as Zooomr is interesting (even if I don’t use it anyway).

Congratulation for the new design. The way you design so simple things but also very useful and powerful is killing me :)

By: Hugo

Hugo — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:46:19 +0000

I think you are totally correct. It’s amazing the number of services launched everyday, that doesn’t have any concerns with the usability of their sites.
By the way, congratulations for the redesign of webreakstuff’s blog.