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by toby- 2411 days ago
Reading through your comment and looking back at the Download page, I think you're right. The linkified image is especially poor design (although, I think the intention becomes more obvious when there are multiple linkified images to common software-download destinations, e.g. SourceForge or FileHippo, as (IIRC) was previously the case).

I suppose it may just boil down to a fundamental difference of opinion; I don't really think it's necessary for every website to try to accommodate entirely non-tech savvy users — especially a site offering software that already assumes existing technical ability (if you can't negotiate an antiquated download page, you're probably going to struggle to use a lot of software of that era, including Sandboxie).

1 comments

The topic of this thread is whether the website at question is “fast-loading, simple, information-dense and distinctively-styled yet still very readable” compared to today’s mainstream/recommended designs. My take is that information sprinkled in walls of text of dubious value instead of elements that naturally stand out is not readable or actionable at all. If your argument is tech-savvy people should be made to jump through hurdles to download this specific tool, then (1) I don’t agree with this pointless gatekeeping, time wasted is time wasted; (2) you’re not refuting my point.

Also, I can find the download link in maybe 5 seconds, but I bet my father who happens to be an aging software engineer, savvy enough to use this but getting slower, definitely can’t.

You're making the wrong assumption that getting as many users on board for an aging non-profitable non-core project is actually a goal.

I personally have a project that is in it's early stages and the worst thing that could happen right now is that it goes viral and then I won't be able to work on it at my own pace anymore. Having a user base of 3 people is already tiring enough as it is.

I’m saying “this is terribly designed.” You’re saying “terribly designed is exactly what they need.” What are you arguing against?