A designer complains about Hammer's official website again

Last year, the open letter was a huge hit, even alarming Luo Yonghao. I never thought that the author would publish a new chapter today. The criticisms are still sharp, but only designers with obsessive-compulsive disorder can find them>>>

[Key points]: The copywriting is verbose, the front-end is weird, the process is confusing and there is a lack of talent. This picky designer has new complaints.

Author’s public account: OCDesigner, welcome to follow

Lao Luo:

Hello, nice to see you again. I previously introduced myself as a designer with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Later I found out that some people with obsessive-compulsive disorder can wash their hands for an hour. Compared with them, I think it would be more appropriate to say that I am actually a product manager who cannot tolerate any grain of sand in my eyes.

I wrote you an open letter last September, which contained no less than 10 complaints about the Hammer official website. However, after good interaction with you, 95% of the problems were modified and avoided. Hence this new open letter.

That open letter: "An open letter to Lao Luo! A designer's complaints about the Hammer official website"

1. Disclaimer

As an outsider, some of our "guesses" may not be accurate. But I believe some of this is a matter of degree, not presence. I have nothing to do with any direct or indirect losses caused by believing in and referring to the information in it. If you disagree with this statement, please stop reading the letter.

2. Usage Environment

Computer hardware: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

System version: OS X 10.10.4 (14E17e) [System language is Chinese]

Browser: Safari 8.0.7 (10600.7.5)

All screenshots are from May 9th to 10th

3. Problem Summary

The copywriting is wordy

Front-end weird

Confusing process

Talent shortage

4. Specific instructions

1. The copywriting is too wordy

1) The "arguments" in the function introduction text are not convincing and the logic is confusing.

Every screen of the website should be a persuasive "slide". If each subheading is an argument, then the text discussing it below should be the evidence. However, the text on the Hammer's official website is just a mess.

via Smartisan Technology official website

The subtitle (argument) in the picture seems to be about "the OS is beautiful, easy to use and user-friendly". The main body of the text (argument) is: "Improve to a certain degree", "Polish to a certain degree" and "Implement to a certain degree", three parallel sentences composed of super-long attributives. There is no clear subject, which makes people confused when reading it. It has no corresponding relationship with "beautiful", "easy to use" and "humanization".

The main sentence of the second paragraph is "New features leave you with no turning back." It gives people a somewhat terrifying feeling. Besides, does everyone assume that the "once in seven years" joke is known to everyone? The punchline is buried but not revealed, giving people the feeling that the other shoe has not dropped yet.

via Apple Chinese official website

The picture above is an example from Apple’s official website. Subtitle(argument): "iOS version". The main body of the text (argument) sentence is: "iOS 8 system functions and features will present advantages", the subject is clear, and the task to be completed is clear.

The main body of the second sentence is "This is not only a great match, it's a great experience." It is easy to understand and accurate.

2) The wordy copy “permeates” the website and product.

The copywriting should be brief and precise. Don't write too much or "tell stories". Such copywriting may bring fun and communication (marketing) at the beginning, but when users open and use it repeatedly, it will become as boring as a cold joke that is told over and over again.

via Hunan TV "Real Men"

Cumbersome copywriting is like redundant dubbing. At first it was for "funny", but later it became "ridiculous". In the video above, Wang Baoqiang even added his own voice effects when training to pull the trigger. Compared to training without sound effects, the instructor may be able to understand his firing action better. And when he was scolded for having to do the dubbing ten times, the dubbing seemed redundant and ridiculous.

Sometimes, in order to disclaim responsibility or explain, it seems that Hammer has to say a long introductory text. These words retain the original intention of our design function, and they also provide fun and instructions for using the function.

However, if this is a function with a slightly higher usage scenario, the long and crap instructions will always be annoying. After all, no one wants to read now, especially repeatedly.

via Smartisan Technology English official website

via Hammer Note English interface

"What's the point?" The "point" that foreigners cannot get is becoming an obstacle to internationalization.

The writing of product and website copy should be "de-popularized" and "de-regionalized." Writing text using words and sentence patterns that are popular on the Internet today into your copy would be a disaster. Besides the fact that it will eventually become unpopular due to the one-year non-update period, the more important reason is that the "jokes" formed by cultural differences usually cannot be well translated and conveyed to foreigners.

The words Revolutionary, Disruptive, and Redefined in Figure 1 above originally came from Apple’s advertisements. Unfortunately, these words never appeared in the English version of Apple’s advertisements, which caused the “point” to be lost. Some of the users referred to in Figure 2 above are actually from China. It is definitely inappropriate that the sarcastic remarks about the users were translated in a serious manner.

2. Front-end Wonder

1) Many text displays on the website are completed by pictures.

This is not only detrimental to dissemination (SEO and replication), but also increases the cost of modification and maintenance. When the text needs to be updated and modified, the designer must intervene and produce multiple copies of materials before the update can be completed, which lengthens the work chain.

via Smartisan Technology official website

All the simple or complex "text and pictures" in the above picture are achieved by loading a whole picture.

There is no reason to use pictures to display the most basic elements of a web page. Presenting all elements including text in the form of pictures will not only affect the loading speed of the web page and waste server resources, but also disrespect the system's own text rendering method, and the display effect will not be optimal.

There is almost nothing special about the layout of the text displayed above. It is implemented through simple code, which is conducive to maintenance and updating, and will also speed up the development of the mobile version (element reuse).

2) The laziness of the front end is also reflected in the fact that it is only responsible for the final effect but not the implementation method.

The variety of styles and the use of materials should not be an excuse for laziness. All the styles I have seen can be completed "cleanly" through code.

via Smartisan Technology official website

In the above picture, in order to realize the page material shading, the front end uses a 2350×7146 background image.

Divide it into layers, cut it into slices, or do nothing and just put the whole picture on. If you use the "designer himself" to restore the "design drawing", the restoration effect will of course be "excellent". However, the more "high-end" the page looks, the more low-brow the implementation method is.

In fact, it is not because Hammer insists on the "skeuomorphic style" that it encounters this problem. Game websites often use the "scroll" style to publish announcements, etc., but they have never seen such a low-tech implementation method.

3. Chaotic process

1) Code maintenance and management exposes the chaos of process management.

For example, regarding the support for Retina screens, some support it while others do not, for the same content format. This shows a lack of standards.

At the same time, where public code is required, public code is not established, and multiple different codes are running at the same time, which leads to bugs that need to be modified again and again.

via Smartisan Technology official website

Whether the HD screen is compatible or not is not the issue. What is the issue is that without clear demand, there will be no clear action.

Of course, Hammer may or may not care about the share of HD screens, and may or may not care about the experience of HD screens. But no matter what, this is a requirement that needs to be determined from the beginning so that there are standards to implement and regulate.

On the same page, some of the same type of materials may be Retina materials and some may not, without any reason. The lack of standardized management will inevitably lead to chaotic processes.

via Smartisan Technology official website

One world, one dream. The same style uses common code, which makes maintenance and updates efficient and convenient.

While the bottom style is exactly the same, the official version of Smartisan Technology uses multiple codes that are maintained separately. This practice often leads to the recurrence of bugs. As shown in the figure, the registration information has been updated and modified to text, but the old style still appears on the website because the public code is not called.

The lack of awareness of the creation and maintenance of public codes exposes the product manager's insufficient process management.

2) As the project progresses, the “related” or “affected” projects are not updated.

The relevant departments do not understand what available resources they have, let alone what projects are involved in the projects they have. Or know but don’t remember to update.

via Smartisan Technology Public Account

via Smartisan Technology official website

The Smartisan Technology public account in Figure 1 released a recruitment notice on May 4, recruiting new talents such as copy editors. Figure 2 The official website was last updated on March 20, and the positions listed on the official account could not be found.

"If this one is effective, post it first, and then update the other one later." Project promotion should have process management, which is the greatest wealth accumulated through work.

Whenever Apple is about to hold a press conference to launch a new product, it will first take its online store offline. This process is their best practice and also forms fixed expectations for users.

Only by understanding your own resources and business can you arrange and plan a reasonable process. When promoting a project, first analyze which projects are affected, and avoid delays and errors in the affected projects by distributing them or completing them yourself. Ultimately, summarizing and solidifying the reasonable process will become an important asset for the company.