Website design is important – fine. As interactive marketing agency in Chicago, we are all about Style! But too many website redesign projects stall because of misguided notions about website design. Don’t misunderstand me. There are situations for certain businesses where creative design that “pops” is critical to the brand. But in most cases effective communication is mostly a function of simplicity, user experience, calls to action and thoughtful information architecture – not ego design that “pops” its way into design hell (this hilarious comic says it all). This is especially true for mid-size B2B businesses finally getting around to redesigning their website.
Spend your time, energy and budget agonizing over the effectiveness of the message, not aesthetics. There’s no doubt that ugly broken sites can scream “unprofessional” and harm a brand. But “beauty” isn’t always the most important thing online. Skeptical? Here are three famous examples illustrating my point:
Craigslist: For a site that nearly single-handedly obliterated the newspaper classified business, craigslist sure doesn’t look much like the juggernaut it is. Plain text and unassuming links in ancient web colors present a 1996 look. But Craigslist covers over 450 cities and user-generated content revenue approximates $100M. Craigslist is an excellent example of compelling content that changed the world without eye candy.
Google: Is there any user interface less sexy than Google’s? Could there be anything more spartan than a logo, a box and a white background? Probably not. Has there ever been a more important and powerful internet company? Definitely not.
Wikipedia: A triumph of visual mimimalism, Wikipedia won’t ever distract your eye with CSS borders or oversized images. It knows you’re there for the article and doesn’t ever insert itself between your eye and what you came to see.
I find that the people most concerned with the superficial design of their site are the ones who end up with the worst sites or stall their project altogether.
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August 4th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
I gotta say your examples are a little misleading. Craigslist, Google and Wikipedia are functional sites, which is to say they are not there to sell you anything themselves. They are in essence directories, and directories with few competitors at their inception.
Craiglist at its inception competed with newpapers but had the price of free and a much broader reach on it side. It won by utility and price, I would argue in spit of it’s design. Furthermore I doubt design updates to make it earlier to find what your looking for and make it easier to read would harm it in any way.
Google blew it’s competitors out of the water when it came on the scene. It won by pure ability, and while not pretty I’d argue it was a breath of fresh air from the crowded insanity of the day. But if you need any proof of the power of design look at Bing. Bing’s search isn’t as good as Googles (yet) but it’s more pleasing design and nice UI touches have definitely helped it increase market share at the expense of Google and Yahoo.
Lastly Wikipedia like the pervious 2 sites blows all other competitors out of the water in content and price. But perhaps more so than the other two Wikipedia would benefit strongly from design/UI updates to make it easier to search and read.
I’m not saying that you need a flash based site with glass floor reflections and lens flares, but design is important. Unless you have an industry leading site with killer functionality/abilities, people will judge your site on appearance. So while aesthetics is not above clarity and functionality it it certainly hand in hand with them.
August 4th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
I thought this comic was so apropos when I read it on the Oatmeal, that I sent it to a client I was working with. You can see some examples of this client’s site and others here – http://siteofthetimes.com
August 8th, 2010 at 1:15 am
Totally agree with you, aesthetics is one thing, user-friendliness and marketability is another.
September 10th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I like when a site is somewhat of an example of the product or service it represents. Craig’s list dishes out as many entries as possible in one shot. Google home allows for quick and easy search. Wikipedia serves cyclopedic content with links, references and scattered images. What more can one ask for?
And how about chirp up? All about online, with easy-as-pie navigation, excellent content written by respected authors, plentiful links, all presented in a clean and concise manner.
There’s beauty in simplicity.
September 10th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Thanks for kind words and good points BarbBizub.
December 23rd, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Thanks for kind words and good points BarbBizub.