Are ugly websites easier to use?: LiveSimplicity discussion forum

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I've noticed lately that quite a few websites have too much going on on each page. Graphics, polls, stories, links, navigation, advertising can become overwhelming when looking for specific information. Are simply designed sites with little regard to aesthetics more usable?

View A

Site with minimal graphics are not only easier to navigate, but much easier to use overall because I don't have to deal with an overload of information. Just look at sites such as craigslist.com and even amazon.com, although they aren't pretty, they are highly usable.

View B

Removing graphic and creating minimal websites goes against what people want to see. They want to see images and something that is visually appealing. Websites must also reflect the companies brand, so it would not make sense to have minimal images unless it is part of the overall branding.

8 comment(s) so far

Maven thinks: I think minimal graphics can actually be helpful to the user. Sites like craigslist go a bit far with the minimal approach, but the idea is a good one. It minimizes page load time, reduces the amount of clutter, and allows web designers to keep things nice and organized. The best designs are often the simplest visually although they may be complex on the back end. Just look at Google search. It's one of the simplest pages on the web, but behind it is a enormous amount of data and functionality.

jorlin thinks: Simplicity is an enormous challenge in my work and in everyone's work. My career focus is in the area of training. It is a huge challenge is to provide learning and performance aids which deliver the most value in the least time. In fact it is much harder and more time consuming to offer tight, streamlined, training and job aids than it is to construct a long set Power Point slides. I believe that this kind of thinking should drive website design.

I also have a pet peeve about websites that have a “Contact Us�? section but don’t offer direct, personal, contact. Instead they give an email address that may or may not ever be monitored in a timely way. So, not only should websites be simple, they should be highly responsive wherever they offer interaction.

pawn thinks: Plain and simple, ugly web sites are profitable. Just look at Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon, and IMDB. None of these are particularly beautiful, but the revenue they generate whether on ads or sales is incredible. Their secret is basic usability. They work because they are easy to navigate. They are free of all the superfluous distractions associated with a highly designed websites. Here's an article that goes into more detail...

Simpler thinks: "a picture can say a thousand words" - guess people just don't know how to use images in a way that supports your user goal.

chrisek thinks: The web is about content. Images need to support the content or else what's the point of using them if only to create long download times and clutter the information on a page.

awakened thinks: To me, the level of design of a website is sometimes the first sign of its' quality. Of course, as soon as I dig into the site, my main concern is functionality. I guess to me, a web site needs to be functional while maintaining a visually appealing style. I enjoy graphic design as a hobby, so I can tell when an image has too many things going on inside of it, or too little.

A successful site (in terms of usability) will have just enough graphic inside of it to accentuate the parts the user needs to see first. To me, a great mixture of usability and design are sites like flickr.com or google. Sites like craigslist previously mentioned simply hurt my eyes, AND my brain.

Deliah thinks: I think you need to obtain the right balance. Something that is pleasing to the eye, but doesn't overload you with a bunch of useless jargon. Unfortunately this seems somewhat hard to acheive in our world wide web. But I prefer simplicity. Google for example. Its search page is so basic and easy to use, without a bunch of bells and whistles, that might be why its one of the top (if not the top) used search engines out there.

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