Top all-time · #5399
Cennydd Bowles
Personal blog · cennydd.co.ukdesignwriting
Cennydd Bowles's personal blog at cennydd.co.uk covers design and writing. Since 2008, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 18 times, most often “Statistical significance & other A/B test pitfalls”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-21, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for a 2008 post on avoiding redesign backlash, which describes a seller page background removed, reinstated, and then gradually recoloured by designers. Comments only cite or link it.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Cennydd Bowles · Philosopher of technology and design
Most-linked posts?
- Statistical significance & other A/B test pitfalls5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2009-12-02
- Fall and Rise of UX2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-04-04
- End hover abuse now2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-10-18
What Hacker News says?
I don't think that Coding Horror article is very good. It is too hand-wavey and drawing an analogy that is stretched a little too far, without giving it a sufficiently hard background. I think what he is trying to say is that Phil didn't test the higher order interactions enough, i.e. he didn't check that the effect that some pair of action have when done together (and the effect of triples, etc.). This is very impo…
Comment linking /2009/statistical-significance-other-ab-test-pitfalls/
on “Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?”Submitted End hover abuse now as a story · 37 points
HN discussionfound it here: http://www.cennydd.co.uk/2008/can-we-avoid-redesign-backlash... "In a nutshell, a meaningless background was removed from a seller page. Pandemonium. After strong resistance the background was reinstated, to everyone’s satisfaction. In fact, the rebellious users were so placated that they failed to notice the designers slowly adjusting the background’s hex values over the next few months. The backgrou…
Comment linking /2008/can-we-avoid-redesign-backlash/
on “Ask HN: How do big web sites roll out new versions?”Submitted Statistical significance & other A/B test pitfalls as a story · 19 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fall and Rise of UX as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted End hover abuse now as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why is technology so dull? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Designing with Context as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Statistical significance & other A/B test pitfalls as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The making of Tourdust as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why don't designers take Android seriously? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Slow Swordfighting at the World Chess Championship Candidates Tournament as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The gradient chart as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Statistical Significance & Other A/B Pitfalls as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The site looks a million times better. Why aren’t we converting? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Statistical significance & other A/B test pitfalls as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Fall and Rise of User Experience as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted UX: A Metaphore as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
