from Hacker News

I designed my website to look like a chat log

by AlexDragusin on 11/20/24, 12:53 AM with 55 comments

• by leshokunin on 11/20/24, 5:16 AM

  It’s a fun novelty. I’m not sure what else to say though.

  I found myself scrolling through most of the site. Unable to focus my eye on a specific block, on important information. It reminded me of the “I ain’t reading all this, congrats, or sorry it happened to you“ meme :)

  There is a reason people reuse design patterns. Users have an expectation of how things work. It does force a certain boring homogeneity. There’s a trade off.

  Hope you can keep experimenting!

• by counterpartyrsk on 11/20/24, 6:15 AM

  That was probably the worst possible background given the amount of scrolling required. And he's a designer?

• by lxgr on 11/20/24, 3:58 PM

  Interesting idea, but to be honest, my first thought was "somebody should really type up that long Slack thread in a more accessible form and put it on our wiki so that it's accessible to others not part of the conversation".

  It fits well with the current trend of "chat as UI", but I think this is fundamentally not a very good paradigm for knowledge sharing, so this probably has a pretty short expiry date as a novelty thing.

• by 1123581321 on 11/21/24, 12:58 AM

  I like the idea. I’ve commissioned logos from one-revision-only designers a couple of times. Happy with the results both times and they were not what I would’ve asked for. I only used one revision on one of them, so close to zero-revision.

  Organizations can be so stingy and precious commissioning logos; I encourage them to take flyers on services like this one even if it’s not going to be their primary design.

  The chat idea is fun. The writing is good which is most important. The text size and gap between blocks were big enough to be legible to semi-quick scrollers.

• by agmater on 11/20/24, 3:59 PM

  I like it! By being novel, it effectively pitches the product of the website. Others mentioned how its a bit scroll heavy —I also found myself scrolling for the pricing (should be the second question, perhaps)— but all the info is on the page, so you'll get there if you're interested. Some feedback to consider:

  - Is the strict refund policy really necessary? Since you screen clients I'd expect you rarely (<1%) deliver a product the client hates. Perhaps a more traditional 'satisfaction guaranteed' would make the sale easier, and highlight your expertise. But I get that it introduces admin work.

  - The portfolio is really nice, I'd find a way to break the format a bit to include a carousel of latest work. Could also be higher-up, the third message even.

  - On mobile it switches the response bubble to the left?

  - Consider centering the logo; adding some padding-top for mobile.

  - It's not clear where you are doing business from, in the EU this can be helpful to know for tax reasons.

  - Not having a contact-form in the style of a composing a message at the bottom feels like a missed opportunity!

• by AlexDragusin on 11/20/24, 12:53 AM

  Sharing this as a potentially interesting, no nonsense, website UI as I think it facilitates exploration due to the inherent curiosity of reading a "conversation", lets the visitor be "in" and feels like a journey.

  Initially I designed it somewhat as block of text FAQ but then is not as engaging, at the same time, the information is important for those who are making a decision (in this particular context) and so I figured this at least keeps it mildly interesting.

  I am not aware of other designs like this (I searched), so would love to hear if any of you know of similar designs. I can't be the first one to come up with this idea haha

  Please keep the conversation about the UI and technical aspect of the website rather than my service. Appreciate your feedback, thank you!

• by tyleo on 11/20/24, 12:39 PM

  I walk away with the impression of a talented logo/brand designer—perhaps one of the best! But not a particularly skilled UX designer.

• by vrighter on 11/25/24, 9:41 AM

  It only uses half of my available screen width, and completely wastes the rest.

  Also, on loading the page, a total of only 108 words could fit on my screen. Everything is too big. And honestly, hard to read because of it.

  For reference, 108 words is about the length of this one comment. Which takes up only about a 6th of the height of my screen, even if it still wastes a lot of horizontal space.

  If I came across that page organically, I'd navigate away before reading the 108 words on the topmost visible screenful.

• by infotainment on 11/20/24, 2:43 AM

  It's definitely an interesting concept, but I'd be concerned about the lack of any kind of visual information hierarchy. What is the user's eye's supposed to be drawn to?

  I could imagine a scenario where a recruiter flipping through candidate sites as quickly as possible would immediately write it off.

• by jjkmk on 11/20/24, 2:37 AM

  I like the idea, looks really good.

  I would put the example logos higher up in the chat is my only suggestion.

• by binary132 on 11/21/24, 3:01 AM

  Your logos are quite good but I don’t like the styling of the chat page. It makes me question the quality of the other design work. That may just be my personal style tastes, though. But on my phone, it is quite large and uncomfortable to scroll through, with awkward “UI” styling. I would imagine it might work a little better if the style were a bit closer to Android or iOS SMS, or telegram messaging UIs. I personally would find a simple IRC client style UI appealing but that’s not everyone.

• by theartfuldodger on 11/22/24, 1:30 AM

  Was a quick and easy read for me. The novelty works for me as I generally do read every word and dont fall into scanning if It's worth reading. Have used similar models in regards to pricing and revision policies. Thought the logos were excellent and far exceeded the requested price.

  There was one logo with little bowl and chopsticks, something Thai related and when I first saw it I was reminded of a cockroach before recognizing the chopsticks and bowl.

• by dev-jayson on 11/20/24, 3:30 AM

  Considering how we're all "conditioned" to scroll through a chat log, by the time we come to our senses we've probably browsed through half of your landing page already. Very nice!

• by macwarlock on 11/20/24, 2:43 AM

  I think it might be more interesting (and feel less like a FAQ) if the questions came from different personalities rather than trying to assume the visitor's internal monologue. Maybe at the bottom the visitor (who has been catching up on the 'chat') can be encouraged to join the conversation in a way that fits into the format more naturally than just the email link.

  Overall, still refreshing to see a different take at engaging visitors.

• by ujikoluk on 11/20/24, 12:33 PM

  Love the design. Also love the attitude, wish we had more clear communication like this.

  Would absolutely use this service if I was in need of a logo.

• by kromokromo on 11/20/24, 5:18 PM

  I would suggest containing the chat in a framed container that spans the page, and scroll inside it. In the current form, scrolling the entire webpage makes it loose the chat box effect in my opinion. Right now it just feels like scrolling a html page with horizontal cards.

• by kugurerdem on 11/20/24, 2:17 PM

  I don't feel qualified enough to judge the quality of the design itself.

  However, presenting your ideas in the form of a chat log, just like some philosophy books that explain their point by using dialogues is a creative approach.

  I guess this would also work well when presenting written interviews. :)

• by ThePowerOfFuet on 11/20/24, 11:30 AM

  Tiny correction: "Can you tell me what's the design process like?" is grammatically incorrect and sounds weird.

  Three alternatives:

  What's the design process like?

  Can you tell me what the design process is like?

  Can you describe the design process?

• by eddd-ddde on 11/20/24, 1:45 PM

  > I provide the final files for the design as vector SVG, thus you can have it modified by yourself

  Oh, so you admit they _may_ need revisions, you just won't do it. Not exactly reassuring.

• by marifjeren on 11/20/24, 2:41 AM

  this is neat. i like the guy's confidence. the animations on the work page are very framey for me, not sure if that's by design

• by donbrae on 11/20/24, 9:22 AM

  The background does give a slight dizzying effect on scroll. His logos are good, though, and I like his no-nonsense attitude.

• by patching-trowel on 11/25/24, 1:42 PM

  If it’s good enough Socrates it’s good enough for Socra-me.

• by ulfw on 11/20/24, 7:32 AM

  Hm yea okay. Well done I suppose. Not sure what the purpose would be though, but hey - knock yourself out mate

• by mycroft_4221 on 11/20/24, 7:28 PM

  Really nice idea, caught my attention for sure!

  Only the actual logos are pretty hidden - and load really slowly…

• by fsckboy on 11/20/24, 6:01 AM

  there's no mention of trademark or copyright search.

  is the one logo guaranteed to be unique?

• by freetonik on 11/20/24, 10:14 AM

  It's an interesting idea and well executed, but personally I'm usually so tired of all the other messaging-based information flows (work chats, family chats, etc.), my brain resists consuming any more "messages". What makes things worse is that here I'm reading someone else's conversation, so it subconsciously feels even more detached from my reality.