HN Explorer

Is a professional looking website design crucial for success?

2 points by ggttaa ↗ HN
I think that a professional looking website design is becoming a standard for startups. All the famous startups have a nice design. It need not have to be complex, just simple. If I see a website with not so professionally looking design I do not trust it so much. This approach is very strong in my country (Slovakia).

What is your experience? And please, could you have a look at my site - https://reltrek.com - and tell me something about your feelings? We are trying to find out, how important is to pay for professional design in this early stage.

Thank you much!

5 comments

[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 19.9 ms ] thread
roybarberuk
I think it heavily depends on your target market and what the product is, If your aiming for designers or techies then an amazingly designed website will obviously help.

The most important thing to remember is the usability and content of a website far out weighs the design.

You seem to have achieved exactly that on your website. within a second i knew what you was offering, and 3 seconds what it looks like. A little more reading and i knew what the benefits/features were. You have a great base, well done.

Roy http://roybarber.com

ggttaa
Thanks, it is very valuable for us to have a feedback for such a designer! I certainly agree with you that usability is far more than the design itself. Even more, good design should lead the user to the desired action, I think.
CyberFonic
Great site, great looking service ... I'll be signing up shortly to give it a spin.

Answer to your question: YES as long as it is a Great Product / Service and your marketing is spot on.

A great looking website for a poorly conceived or implemented product / service is like lipstick on a pig.

meerita
Great looking != useful.

There are many websites with questionable style than are by far very usable. I would invest more on UX than cosmetics.

dgunn
I think the design looks pretty good and the service sounds fine. The trust issues you may have are in your grammar. Because the website is written in English, I assume you want to be seen by English speakers. If that's the case, you need to clean it up.

If you don't have much copy to look through, I would be happy to clean it up for you. My email is in my profile.

I can't commit much time so if there is a lot to do you may need to ask someone else or pay someone to do it.

Edit: You can't pay me to do it. I'll do a small amount for free just to help out but I won't do a lot even for money. I don't have time.