5 ms·

How does the Aesthetic Usability Effect account for the success of websites like Amazon, Wikipedia, Craigslist, Hacker News, classic Reddit, and LinkedIn, to na

How does the Aesthetic Usability Effect account for the success of websites like Amazon, Wikipedia, Craigslist, Hacker News, classic Reddit, and LinkedIn, to name a few? There seems to be no correlation between aesthetic quality and use of these sites. I'm not sure what that indicates about the "usability" of these sites. If the goal is to maximize the number of users, it would seem that there is some evidence that a sense of usability determined by aesthetic quality is not that important.

Retra 8y ago
People aren't using those sites because of their UIs, but because of the content they offer. UI isn't the only factor, but it is a necessary factor.
- logifail 8y ago
  > UI isn't the only factor, but it is a necessary factor. Necessary for what (or for whom)?
  - Retra 8y ago
    A UI is necessary for users to use your product. That doesn't mean the UI is your product.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
username223 8y ago
I know this will never happen, but it would be interesting to see the percentage of Reddit users who took the time to opt out of the new "improved" interface. I suspect that number is small, because most people have learned to just quietly sigh and accept random UI changes, but larger than the Reddit UI team would care to admit.
- gwern 8y ago
  If you are a moderator of a reasonably popular subreddit, you can find out by checking the traffic statistics which breaks out old vs new! For example, for my little link-sharing subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/) : https://imgur.com/a/sUcEQeQ https://imgur.com/a/sUcEQeQ You can see a large fraction of the users have taken the time to optout, perhaps as much as a third (!) of those who can. Considering how passive most users are, this tells me that the new & expensive Reddit design is indeed loathed.
  - username223 8y ago
    Thanks! 1/3 opting out is indeed damning. I'm surprised they made those stats public. Hopefully a moderator of /r/programming, /r/news, /r/politics, or some other mega-popular subreddit will post their stats.
  - plorkyeran 8y ago
    Reddit tries pretty hard to force you back onto the new design, too. When not using old.reddit.com it "forgets" that I opted out of the redesign on a regular basis, and even old.reddit.com occasionally redirects to the new design.
    - gwern 8y ago
      I think that might be a bug. That was happening to me on a daily or more frequent basis for a while, but I don't think I've had to redo the opt-out in like a week.

Retra 8y ago

People aren't using those sites because of their UIs, but because of the content they offer. UI isn't the only factor, but it is a necessary factor.

logifail 8y ago
> UI isn't the only factor, but it is a necessary factor. Necessary for what (or for whom)?
- Retra 8y ago
  A UI is necessary for users to use your product. That doesn't mean the UI is your product.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

username223 8y ago

I know this will never happen, but it would be interesting to see the percentage of Reddit users who took the time to opt out of the new "improved" interface. I suspect that number is small, because most people have learned to just quietly sigh and accept random UI changes, but larger than the Reddit UI team would care to admit.

gwern 8y ago
If you are a moderator of a reasonably popular subreddit, you can find out by checking the traffic statistics which breaks out old vs new! For example, for my little link-sharing subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/) : https://imgur.com/a/sUcEQeQ https://imgur.com/a/sUcEQeQ You can see a large fraction of the users have taken the time to optout, perhaps as much as a third (!) of those who can. Considering how passive most users are, this tells me that the new & expensive Reddit design is indeed loathed.
- username223 8y ago
  Thanks! 1/3 opting out is indeed damning. I'm surprised they made those stats public. Hopefully a moderator of /r/programming, /r/news, /r/politics, or some other mega-popular subreddit will post their stats.
- plorkyeran 8y ago
  Reddit tries pretty hard to force you back onto the new design, too. When not using old.reddit.com it "forgets" that I opted out of the redesign on a regular basis, and even old.reddit.com occasionally redirects to the new design.
  - gwern 8y ago
    I think that might be a bug. That was happening to me on a daily or more frequent basis for a while, but I don't think I've had to redo the opt-out in like a week.