I see all this stylish eye candy on the page (animated transitions, rounded corners, dialogs with dark overlay) that takes time and care to implement, but there was just not enough time to make the text legible before shipping, eh?
It's clear that some of these were design choices and have nothing to do with shipping faster. The others are just inconsistencies that go against the general polish that the design aspires to convey.
But it wouldn't hurt to ship and then add these things later right? I do not know about anyone else, but I know that I'm a sucker for pretty things. A pretty website that is "inconsiderate" would have me sign up and leave in frustration, but a meh website that's very considerate wouldn't see me signing up at all.
Fair point. However, my girlfriend swore to me that she'll never read hacker news unless they "prettify things up". She eased up and now reads HN regularly (partly because I talk about stuff on HN regularly) - my point is that HN with no eye-candy did almost turn away a potential user.
Anecdotal. Also, one may argue that people who like eye candy is not the target crowd for HN (I disagree). Still, if your site is not HN, you might want some eye candy.
It's clear that some of these were design choices and have nothing to do with shipping faster. The others are just inconsistencies that go against the general polish that the design aspires to convey.