Does a site labeled “ugly” equal bad design?
I recently read an article on the next web that discussed the most popular sites on the internet are also the “ugliest.” These sites, reddit, craigslist, The Drudge Report, 4Chan and Hacker, have endless reasons of why they are screaming for a redesign. But are they bad design?
In the modern design world, we celebrate the latest iOS update that replaces skeuomorphism with the current flat design. It’s herald revolutionary and a new frontier in design. However, the user experience basically stayed the same. Isn’t good design the complete package of fresh visuals combined with a new improved user experience? Not just a new coat of paint so to speak?
In the interactive landscape bad design is:
- Poor legibility: a wide range of fonts and clashing colors can make a site hard to read, especially when it features lengthy posts.
- Confusing navigation: if a user can’t figure out how to find what they’re looking for on your site, or can’t tell where a link will take them, they’re not likely to stick around for long.
- Slow performance: if you’re using a lot of scripts, images and animations, your site will take a while to load and bog down your users’ devices.
All the sites mentioned above display their information clearly. They’re legible and they load quickly on most connections. Yet many in the design community deems them bad design? Why? For one, they don’t blend in. Sites like Medium, Mashable and Trulia all share a similar design trends. Sites like reddit and The Drudge Report are unique by today’s designs standards. However, I think there is a comfort level that they resonates with their visitors. If the sites are that poorly designed wouldn’t their site traffic be down because visitors found a better designed site to get their information from? In 2008, Basecamp co-founder Jason Fried wrote about how The Drudge Report’s design is immensely successful, and he made a number of good points that hold true even today: “its design is timeless, easy to maintain and compatible with everything.” After reading Jason Fried’s thoughts, it’s tough to argue against him.
It is inevitable these “ugly” sites one day will get a makeover. When they do, I believe they must make small design changes over time, similar to the design progress that amazon.com and apple.com have done. That is to slowly ease their visitors into there new look. Slow and steady wins that design race.
So what do you think? Are reddit, craigslist and the rest of the most popular “ugly sites” bad design?
