Robert Scoble’s post “The role of anti-marketing design” led to a flurry of web articles including “The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites,” which caused a bit of a ruckus. The author’s main assertion in The Surprising Truth is that “ugly websites are surprisingly effective in making money.” He offers PlentyOfFish, an online dating service, as the prime example. Scoble reported the site was making $10,000 a day in GoogleAdSense revenue.
The Surprising Truth article asserts that “Ebay is unbelievably ugly, Craigslist has never won an award for innovative design, and IMDB has never even bothered to format their text out of the default Times New Roman.” Hmm.
I don’t like to get all huffy, but let’s get something straight here. I don’t know where the author of Surprising Truth hangs out on the Internet, but those sites in the previous paragraph are ugly only if you’ve been hanging out at the Zen Garden all day. Even when I had a subdural hematoma last May I wasn’t crazy or sick enough to make Ebay, Craigslist, or IMDB the Daily Design Discussion. If you want to see ugly web sites, my site shows you ones that really are ugly and/or use ugly design techniques.
I think it should be obvious to anyone who has an IQ higher than an ice cube, that PlentyOfFish is successful for one reason: it offers Heroin Content. As I said in Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015:
In his classic book, Naked Lunch, William Burroughs described heroin as the ultimate product. Why? Because people would crawl through the sewers and beg to buy it. In the non-drug world, there are very few products that can be classified as having heroin’s appeal.
Guess what? PlentyOfFish is offering a drug that’s even more addictive than heroin — sex — and to top it off, you don’t have to pay anything to register. Not only is the first hit free, all the hits are free. Talk about Heroin Content!
Would PlentyOfFish make more money if they were a prettier site? Dunno. Don’t care. I doubt they care.
Are These Sites Really Ugly?
Not really. I would describe their design as “functional.” In fact, the Surprising Truth author said the following about PlentyOfFish, “This is a very plain (emphasis vf) looking website that offers a free online dating service.” He hit the nail on the head and didn’t even know it. These web sites are plain — or functional.
Unfortunately, plain web sites have become the new “ugly.” We’ve raised our levels of expectation and that’s good. What’s bad is the current definition of ugly. Words have meaning.
Will Using Plain/Functional/Ugly Design Make Me Rich?
Of course not. Great content might make you rich. If plain/functional/ugly web design would make you rich, I’d be king of the world.
Some folks say ugly design is actually projecting an image of trust between the site and the visitor. Ugly design shows that the company cares more about providing great products than spending time to learn HTML. This type of design shows the company isn’t run by marketing weasels. Perhaps. Usually, bad design on a site you’re visiting for the first time makes you wonder about the professionalism of the company. “Do I want to do business with someone who can’t get it together on their web site?” is what many people ask.
Plain/functional design is not anti-marketing. It’s plain/functional design. If it works, then it’s brilliant; if it doesn’t, it’s a disaster.
What You Really Want Your Web Design To Accomplish
As I’ve said over and over, “Just because a music/art/movie web site uses a stupid web design style or technique doesn’t mean you need to follow suit.” I think you can see where I’m heading: “Just because a site that makes lots of money has a plain or functional design doesn’t mean you should do the same.”
As I said in As I said in Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015, here’s the #1 mistake your web site (and its design) will make:
Nobody cares about you or your site. Really. What visitors care about is getting their problems solved. Most people visit a web site to solve one or more of the following three problems.
- They want/need information
- They want/need to make a purchase / donation.
- They want/need to be entertained.
Too many organizations believe that a web site is about opening a new marketing channel or getting donations or to promote a brand. No. It’s about solving your customers’ problems.
Write these two sentences where you can see them as you’re working on your computer:
1. The only reason my web site exists is to solve my customers’ problems.
2. What problems does the page I’m looking at solve?
What We Should Really Worry About
I’d like to see as much, if not more, energy spent trying to answer the question, Valid HTML - Does Google Care?
Technorati tags: webdesign | usability | webdev | accessibility | web graphics | website design | web standards | Robert Scoble | Biggest Web Design Mistakes | Plenty of Fish | Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites | ugly web design
Posted by: Vincent Flanders
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