tipjoy

This is a better article about skeuomorphism for those interested: http://www.andymangold.com/skeuomorphism-the-opiate-of-the-p...

PS - Skeuomorphism definition: "Strictly speaking it means retaining design features from earlier designs when those features previously had a specific reason for being that way, but do not any longer." - http://madebymany.com/blog/apples-aesthetic-dichotomy

Bump is building an awesome design team. We are hiring interaction designers & visual designers - come join us.

Debatably, they got less than half the talent, thank you very much!

Also worth noting was once we made it through the 'first round' I sent an email asking some questions and got no reply...

Dear author: Please stop misusing 'less'. It should be _fewer_ disks, _fewer_ books. Fewer is for discrete things, less is for continuous. As in: fewer dollars, less money. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer/less

mediocrity != good

Hm, I did a quick search, and it's missing all of the payment engines, and doesn't list popular Twitter URL shorteners like bit.ly

This execution isn't addressing the readers needs, but it would be interesting to see several different attempts at a redesign. It would be a fun challenge for interaction designers.

We do that as well.

They use free p2p payments as a loss leader to up-sell their credit cards. It's a pretty interesting model.

Um, early April Fools joke? Oh and did you go to the homepage: http://www.gicleelife.com ? I'm laughing, anyway.

Seafarers just makes the game bigger. Cities & Knights makes it more complex (as well as making it bigger).

Why is the first comment on all blog posts about magazines folding something along the lines of "oh no! I just paid $9 for a two year subscription!" $9 is less than most people pay daily at starbucks. No wonder magazines can't stay in business. The perceived value of print magazines has fallen to near zero.

You need to play with the 'cities and knights' extension. It makes the game more complex. Also try the board game Puerto Rico, which we're just getting into but seems pretty awesome.

There's no print version (yet!) but maybe one day I'll look at some print-on-demand services like lulu.

Cute idea, but I don't want to over-engineer... just add a date/time note somewhere on the letter and I can accommodate.

It is definitely valid to say that packaging helps sell a product. Think about the experience of receiving a product from Apple and you see the value of packaging.

What is so interesting in this case is that it is a sign of how people's tastes are changing. These new, simple Amazon packages have more 'charm', not less. People are excited by the thought that they're being 'green'. The simple cardboard packaging speaks to the current love of simple, clean and even perhaps DIY design. Simple is charming right now, and Amazon must be keenly aware that this is a smart move both for their bottom line as well as their customer satisfaction ratings.

So the answer is so obvious that any opposition isn't worth hearing, and no debate is necessary? You have your fingers in your ears.

No, style and aesthetics are intrinsically tied to usability and studies have shown this again and again. Check out Malcom Gladwell's Blink for a few colloquial examples. For more formal research studies, email me.

Yes there is. His layout doesn't follow the grid at all, which creates additional cognitive load/eye strain when reading. Also aesthetics affects usability. In studies, it has been shown that people find things which are more aesthetically pleasing to them actually more _usable_ than equally structured but non-'beautiful' things.

you are both 'mildly amused' and 'fairly surprised' - I find this unsurprising, but amusing. also, I recommend: http://www.users.qwest.net/~yarnspnr/writing/adverbs/adverbs...

Very clean site.

The white/gray/dark gray color scheme of the cart part isn't working for me. They white ones look most like links, when they're the sold ones. The grey ones look disabled, when they're the ones you want me to click on.

Also, I agree with others that the dollar amounts should be switched, and the first one should cost the most. Do you label the shirt with the number (as in 1/100 like prints do)? I think that would add value but it isn't clear to me if my run # will be on the shirt I buy. Update, now I see that it is on the shirt as shown in pictures #4 & #5 but you should definitely emphasize this A LOT more. This is the reason someone would pay more when they don't have to.

I don't really like the red treatment. Those are the instructions, not an error message. And here's a tiny nit which might make things a bit clearer: how about "Click a shirt number to get started"?

I'm curious to hear what everyone thinks about this, especially from those who have raised $ before and are now doing it again - has it become more challenging in recent months?