Sadly Lin is now blaming Hacker News for hacking her site with the intention of taking it offline - which is just retarded as:
a) we're legitimate curious visitors (albeit not maybe not customers - but who's to say that some of us wouldn't be converted from window shoppers to buyers - that's kind of the point of websites after all) and
b) her webserver set up to only allow for 500 concurrent connections. Which is just pathetic - particularly given the amount of crap she serves (and thus the countless number of additional server connections each visitor makes to download said content).
I used to think that her site was a mark of a genius; where she deliberately made her site to look amateurish to push the site viral and thus give her huge exposure that most other rentals could only dream of. But then I read her rage tweets[1] and realised that she's just another idiot with an internet connection. Needless to say I'm very disappointed - I liked Lin and her site better when I thought it was designed ironically.
Wow that is a lot like a site I would have made in 1997. (I'm not a web designer, but back then sometimes there was no one else to do it.)
Except that Donald Norman would say that putting directions like "PLEASE NOTE: For GUIDE SERVICES, MEDIA RELATIONS and access to other HBO EXTRANET sites, use the links on the left." means that your user interface is not self-explanatory and should be fixed.
"EU cookie law. Piss off Von Rumpy. Me... I hammer visitors to death with cookies, so I can find out what they want. Cookies allow my website to serve visitors the content they need. Get used to it. The EU cookie law is an ass. - Ling"
I present you http://www.fabricland.co.uk/ - real shop (with a branch near me) and actually a pretty good place, just with a hideous (and genuine, as far as I can tell) web site.
A quick glance seems to indicate they break every rule of modern web design. It's almost too perfect. Like the spec was to to do the exact oposite of what you're supposed to....
I can't link to it now because the site is down, but lingscars has a PDF of 'web design tips' where she explains the design and gives tips on website design. She's obviously got an eccentric public image, and the design tips document is a bit of a joke, but the design here was a deliberate choice to differentiate the site from competitors, make potential customers feel less intimidated and more socially involved. There was even a webcam of the office with a button which apparently played a song in the office when you pressed it.
Unfortunately, the site seems to have detected me mucking about (perhaps because I deleted the element containing the annoying flash video?) and redirected me to /_donotsteal.html (which itself was a redirect to /_donotsteal.html) for a while. Now it just serves me a 1-byte file for any URL, except for /_donotsteal.html, which is 4 bytes.
Christ on a bike, there's a lot of weird stuff in there:
cookie:sexual_orientation=female; - watches how often visitors make irrational decision changes and identifies those people who are schizophrenic as: FEMALE.
cookie:favourite_biscuit=garibaldi; - can detect missed key-strokes caused by crumbs jamming the user keyboard. Compares results over a long period of time to determine typical biscuit type.
cookie:favourite_animal_noise=BAAAAA; - monitors any accidentally open audio channels, to determine if the user snorts or chuckles while browsing and then compares the wavelength of the noise with a table of animal sounds.
I think there's some sort of genius in there. Its somewhat like playing the piano and faking playing the wrong notes intentionally - its a lot harder to fake playing badly than it is to actually play bad (if that makes sense)
Besides that; the co-founder (from Australia) of one of the companies I built and sold successfully, was always quite focused on making 'ugly' designs. We did split-testing with pixel perfect, really professional designs versus this 1995, quite ugly 'old' stuff and every time the ugly design won at conversions. This is the consumer space we were in. We tested many times it the 'ugly' design always won.
Maybe times have changed (this is about 5 years ago), but it always makes a bit suspicious of that cry for the perfect design while it actually, again, at least then, had a averse effect. I still know of a few cases where the owner swears by amateur and ugly. The theory apparently is that a lot of people don't trust slick and believe they will be screwed somehow.
Edit: another one I just thought off; marktplaats.nl (Dutch Ebay and owned by Ebay since 2004) has looked like this; http://web.archive.org/web/19991105082644/http://www.marktpl... for a very long time. Everyone in the web design business thought it was horrible in many ways, but consumers refused to use anything else, including ebay.nl. They hardly touched the design until recently and it is still clear that they didn't want to piss the users off too much.
They're probably the most popular PC parts store in Australia (I've bought from them), yet it looks like they couldn't afford to upgrade their site template they created in 1997.
I go to a large indoor swap meet/flea market near here to check out used computer equipment, tools and other stuff. The aisles are crowded, stuff hangs everywhere, lights are flashing, sounds collide, sellers project offers to you from behind makeshift counters, and you move through it slowly to make sure you don't miss anything.
This site gives me the same feeling -- raw selling.
Ling's got some solid points to make. For example, the silly things she does on her site builds trust with her customers because her customers get more of a glimpse into her personality compared to other dealerships. Trust converts more than pretty, or sensible, visual design.
It's taking branding in a different direction than what we normally consider and I think it's worth while to think outside the box most of us put ourselves in when considering how to maximize conversions. I don't know if what Ling's doing is optimal, but it definitely sheds light on other approaches that are sometimes ignored.
Arngren started out as an electronics and hobby type store in Oslo, and a catalog, and their website looks pretty much the way their massive catalogue used to look like 20+ years ago, when it had toys and household stuff in between pages of IC's with pinouts.
On one hand the website is horrible. On the other hand, it perfectly captures the brand...
The direct response industry continues to use long sales letters and "ugly" design to great effect. It's the same kind of a/b testing that agile UX practitioners espouse that produced "Red gets read!" lore in direct marketing. Still gives me the heabie jeabies looking at that stuff though.
Looking up www.lingscars.com
Making HTTP connection to www.lingscars.com
Sending HTTP request.
HTTP request sent; waiting for response.
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Data transfer complete
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Using http://www.lingscars.com/_donotsteal.html
Looking up www.lingscars.com
Making HTTP connection to www.lingscars.com
Sending HTTP request.
HTTP request sent; waiting for response.
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Data transfer complete
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
lynx: Start file could not be found or is not text/html or text/plain
Exiting...
Brilliant. From the live office webcams page (where you have the option to taunt specific employees):
"Are those traffic lights real?
Yes! There is another set of traffic lights, hidden to the left of the camera, too! They keep my staff awake with visual stimulation in the same way that my website invigorates my visitors!"
[+] [-] dualogy|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] laumars|12 years ago|reply
a) we're legitimate curious visitors (albeit not maybe not customers - but who's to say that some of us wouldn't be converted from window shoppers to buyers - that's kind of the point of websites after all) and
b) her webserver set up to only allow for 500 concurrent connections. Which is just pathetic - particularly given the amount of crap she serves (and thus the countless number of additional server connections each visitor makes to download said content).
I used to think that her site was a mark of a genius; where she deliberately made her site to look amateurish to push the site viral and thus give her huge exposure that most other rentals could only dream of. But then I read her rage tweets[1] and realised that she's just another idiot with an internet connection. Needless to say I'm very disappointed - I liked Lin and her site better when I thought it was designed ironically.
[1] https://twitter.com/LINGsCARS
[+] [-] pdeuchler|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] menubar|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harel|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] annnnd|12 years ago|reply
Oh, wait, I misread. :)
[+] [-] dolphenstein|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marquis|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kephra|12 years ago|reply
thats a progress to the prior cookie and redirect hell.
[+] [-] babby|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scrapcode|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kfk|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MartinMcGirk|12 years ago|reply
http://www.homeboxoffice.com/
[+] [-] drivers99|12 years ago|reply
Except that Donald Norman would say that putting directions like "PLEASE NOTE: For GUIDE SERVICES, MEDIA RELATIONS and access to other HBO EXTRANET sites, use the links on the left." means that your user interface is not self-explanatory and should be fixed.
[+] [-] andyhmltn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdmitch|12 years ago|reply
"EU cookie law. Piss off Von Rumpy. Me... I hammer visitors to death with cookies, so I can find out what they want. Cookies allow my website to serve visitors the content they need. Get used to it. The EU cookie law is an ass. - Ling"
[+] [-] sp8|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] retube|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kryten|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] claudius|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harel|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beeneto|12 years ago|reply
The business is also doing very well.
[+] [-] anonymoushn|12 years ago|reply
Unfortunately, the site seems to have detected me mucking about (perhaps because I deleted the element containing the annoying flash video?) and redirected me to /_donotsteal.html (which itself was a redirect to /_donotsteal.html) for a while. Now it just serves me a 1-byte file for any URL, except for /_donotsteal.html, which is 4 bytes.
[+] [-] laumars|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harel|12 years ago|reply
I think there's some sort of genius in there. Its somewhat like playing the piano and faking playing the wrong notes intentionally - its a lot harder to fake playing badly than it is to actually play bad (if that makes sense)
[+] [-] marquis|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] barbs|12 years ago|reply
http://msy.com.au/
[+] [-] tluyben2|12 years ago|reply
Besides that; the co-founder (from Australia) of one of the companies I built and sold successfully, was always quite focused on making 'ugly' designs. We did split-testing with pixel perfect, really professional designs versus this 1995, quite ugly 'old' stuff and every time the ugly design won at conversions. This is the consumer space we were in. We tested many times it the 'ugly' design always won.
Maybe times have changed (this is about 5 years ago), but it always makes a bit suspicious of that cry for the perfect design while it actually, again, at least then, had a averse effect. I still know of a few cases where the owner swears by amateur and ugly. The theory apparently is that a lot of people don't trust slick and believe they will be screwed somehow.
Edit: another one I just thought off; marktplaats.nl (Dutch Ebay and owned by Ebay since 2004) has looked like this; http://web.archive.org/web/19991105082644/http://www.marktpl... for a very long time. Everyone in the web design business thought it was horrible in many ways, but consumers refused to use anything else, including ebay.nl. They hardly touched the design until recently and it is still clear that they didn't want to piss the users off too much.
[+] [-] C1D|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dolphenstein|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vacri|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnohara|12 years ago|reply
This site gives me the same feeling -- raw selling.
Edit: respectfully fixed a typo.
[+] [-] simonbarker87|12 years ago|reply
Watch her on here on dragons den to understand the nuclear missile quip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc1ktZRZ5ZM
[+] [-] timmillwood|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robmclarty|12 years ago|reply
It's taking branding in a different direction than what we normally consider and I think it's worth while to think outside the box most of us put ourselves in when considering how to maximize conversions. I don't know if what Ling's doing is optimal, but it definitely sheds light on other approaches that are sometimes ignored.
[+] [-] jlengrand|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vidarh|12 years ago|reply
Arngren started out as an electronics and hobby type store in Oslo, and a catalog, and their website looks pretty much the way their massive catalogue used to look like 20+ years ago, when it had toys and household stuff in between pages of IC's with pinouts.
On one hand the website is horrible. On the other hand, it perfectly captures the brand...
[+] [-] bradshaw1965|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swethrowaway|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ancarda|12 years ago|reply
[1] http://websitesfromhell.net/view/yvettesbridalformal.com-10/ (Site is no longer up).
[+] [-] oyvindeh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kephra|12 years ago|reply
http://www.lingscars.com/ redirects to http://www.lingscars.com/_donotsteal.html
Firefox (NoScript) shows:
The page isn't redirecting properly
Iceweasel has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.
This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies.
Lynx shows:
lynx http://www.lingscars.com/
Looking up www.lingscars.com Making HTTP connection to www.lingscars.com Sending HTTP request. HTTP request sent; waiting for response. HTTP/1.1 302 Found Data transfer complete HTTP/1.1 302 Found Using http://www.lingscars.com/_donotsteal.html Looking up www.lingscars.com Making HTTP connection to www.lingscars.com Sending HTTP request. HTTP request sent; waiting for response. HTTP/1.1 302 Found Data transfer complete HTTP/1.1 302 Found
lynx: Start file could not be found or is not text/html or text/plain Exiting...
[+] [-] Hello71|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sambeau|12 years ago|reply
http://www.iamsad.co.uk/
[+] [-] jwecker|12 years ago|reply
"Are those traffic lights real? Yes! There is another set of traffic lights, hidden to the left of the camera, too! They keep my staff awake with visual stimulation in the same way that my website invigorates my visitors!"
The office looks just like the website.
[+] [-] nnq|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glennos|12 years ago|reply