The Big Red Fez

Name: The Big Red Fez
ISBN: 0743227905

How To Make Any Web Site Better

by Seth Godin · first published 2002

8mentions

6recommended by

7HN commenters

2007–2022first – last mentioned

75% recommend25% critical

Why HN recommends it

Short, practical web and marketing tips on making a site or page clearly communicate its call to action and what to do next; recommended for designers and product people who want quick, usable guidance.

Common criticism: Some find it a bit dated and the advice fairly obvious.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

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View on Open Library ISBN 0743227905

Mentions per year

What Hacker News says

Alex3917 · May 1, 2010 · Recommends

…addition to Four Steps to the Epiphany, Crossing the Chasm, and Getting Real, I would add All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin. Of Seth's other books, Permission Marketing, Free Prize Inside, and The Big Red Fez also made a big impact on me. But All Marketers are Liars is the best starting place I think. Definitely also read Art of the Start. It's less insightful and more informative, but it's still a good overview…
on “Ask HN: Best startup books?” ↗
pors · Jan 6, 2012 · Recommends

…design! Two suggestions for improvement: - Let users play and organize before they have to log in - The home page was a bit confusing to me, as it didn't have a very clear distinct "call to action" (read "the big red fez" by Seth Godin to understand more about that, over 10 years old and still very relevant).
on “Show HN: Courtside.me” ↗
bboettger · Mar 30, 2010 · Recommends

Seems like a visual display of the timeless recommendations by Seth Godin in The Big Red Fez (http://www.sethgodin.com/fez/). Although newspapers are dying, this is something any good newspaper designer knows: the eye should immediately go to the most important thing on the page and sequence…
on “Understanding your product's focus through UI” ↗
cdvonstinkpot · Dec 19, 2017 · Recommends

A bit dated, still useful: Seth Godin: The Big Red Fez https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743227905/permissio...
on “Ask HN: Good Books or Resources for Web Design” ↗
SMAAART · Jun 1, 2022 · Recommends

read this: https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/03213... and this: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Red-Fez-Make-Better/dp/0743227905 that's really all you need.
on “Ask HN: How to Design a Website?” ↗
nostrademons · Jun 21, 2007 · Recommends

…Money" (John Maynard Keynes), "The Google Story" (David A. Vise), "When the Astors Owned New York" (Justin Kaplan), "Art of the Start" and "Rules for Revolutionaries" (Guy Kawasaki), "Purple Cow" and "Big Red Fez" and "All Marketers are Liars" (Seth Godin), "Microsoft Secrets" (Michael Cusumano), "Damn Right: Behind the scenes with Charlie Munger" (Janet Lowe), "Crossing the Chasm" (Geoffrey Moore), "A Good Hard…
on “What startup/VC/tech/internet blogs do you read ?” ↗
nostrademons · Mar 22, 2007 · Critical

…Peter Drucker's work. Kinda long and repetitive, but some good insights. Marketing 1. All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin. I like this better than Purple Cow, Guerilla Marketer's Handbook, and The Big Red Fez. Most of those have fairly obvious stuff. 2. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell 3. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore Technical 1. Building Scalable Websites by Cal Henderson 2. High Performance…
on “Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?” ↗
bandrami · Mar 30, 2018 · Critical

Landing pages are awful. In 5 years we're going to be as embarrassed of them as we are now of the mid-oughts' "Skip Intro" buttons. Landing pages fail at the Big Red Fez[1], and will eventually disappear with all the other attempts at giving the user "an experience" rather than a hypertext document. 1: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Red-Fez-Make-Better/dp/0743227905
on “Ask HN: Examples of great landing pages?” ↗