OK, so I went to NUS to meet with my FB Assignment group and parking my car outside COM1 costs me a whopping $6! This is serious daylight robbery. So where should I park? I’m not exactly familiar with NUS and am probably more suaku than the year 1s.
I think my team has a good mix. We have a business guy, an electrical engineer, two partially geeky students (I didn’t make this up – they told me) and one kaypoh (busybody – that’s me). So “good” a mix maybe I’m getting a bit stressed out that we might be technically lacking. But don’t worry. I have faith in you guys. 😛
As a consolation, let me say something. Ugly (probably) sells. Yes, the crappiest, ugliest of all things usually sells well. Don’t ask me why. Here’s my observations.
- Google is ugly, but we use it over Yahoo or Bing.
- Gmail is ugly as hell, but we rather use it over Hotmail. (Sidenote: I’ll give some credit to Yahoo mail here.)
- Ebay ain’t the prettiest of all sites around, but heck it sells like mad.
- Facebook is kinda ugly and doesn’t allow me to customize a hideous pink background like Friendster, but it is the most hit site on the Internet today (don’t ask me why I know, I’m not supposed to tell, but I am certain of this fact).
- Most blogshops are ugly as hell. If you think they look nice, you need to see doctor. But the funny part? They sell too!
So here’s my takeaway point. Ugly (probably) sells.
Comments
8 responses to “First Meetup for Facebook Assignment Costs $6! WT*!”
If I am not wrong, the carpark right outside COM1 is not meant for visitor parking, all are staff lots, you are eligible for wheel clamp 🙂 But they still charge you for the ‘parking’ anyway, which is ridiculous…
You can try the IMRE carpark that you can see from COM1 and biz on the other side as well. I am not sure which one is nearer, all that I know is both involves climbing up the hill that COM1 is on… just from different sides…
Haha I think those who chose to focus on the wrong things (i.e. Beauty only) instead of the core things have failed miserably and are not heard of. 😛
i find google and gmail interface very clean, unclustered and easy to use leh :X It’s definitely not ugly (anw gmail can change the theme right, quite cute). the yahoo new one sooo messy and more complicated… was wondering why they put the “who’s behind it”. putting arrow on his back.
And I assure you, I know many people like myself who won’t visit messy, ugly looking blogshops 😀 makes my eyes hurt, much liek Far East 😛
Co-relation ≠ causality. A huge contradiction to your argument will be Apple!
Beauty is just an icing on the cake. If your cake sucks, no amount of icing can cover it. Of course, best that we have a delicious cake under a beautiful icing.
Same for these apps.
Nice one! 🙂
Well I think there are many things to do and given the short amount of time, people like Google choose to build function over beauty.
PS: example in point: your blog design. I like it. Simple, uncluttered, gets out of the way and allows me to read what you write. ‘Ugly’ … but certainly usable! =3
They’re not ugly, they’re usable! =) They let you get things done, to the point where the design is invisible or irrelevant to the tasks you need to complete at these sites.
Plus, they do those tasks as well as they possibly can.
Parking is cheaper at Temasek Hall, but you’d have to walk further. That’s the carpark in front of you when you drive down the COM1 driveway.