The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites By Mark Daoust (c) 2006Ugliness has never looked better. I have spent the last few daysexamining a surprising trend in web design that has made uglywebsites look absolutely irresistible. No, it's not the bolded,18 point Times New Roman font shouting at me as I access thepage that has me excited, nor is it the harsh colors that haveactually managed to make my eyes hurt and distort my vision. Infact, it's not even that logo which is so pixelated from beingprocessed, resized, saved, and edited so many times that itappears to be blurred to protect the identity of the company whoowns the website that has me singing the praises of uglywebsites. What is it?Ugly sells.That's right ugly websites are surprisingly effective inmaking money. As a person who puts business before technology,a profitable website is a website that is an unbelievablyattractive website to me.The Case of Plenty of FishI was struck by an example of just how effective ugly websitescan be this past week as I was browsing through some web relatednews. I stumbled across the story of Plenty of Fish(http://www.plentyoffish.com/). This is a very plain lookingwebsite that offers a free online dating service much likeMatch.com (but without the subscription fee). There was nothingspecifically impressive about the website that stood out to me,in fact the site was actually rather ugly.What caused me (and I am sure several other people) to take asecond look at the website was its reported earnings. It isreported that this website brings in over $10,000 from Adsense in one day. Yes, you did read that correctly. For those of youcounting, that is $300,000 per month and nearly one milliondollars in just three months.The example of Plenty of Fish led me to consider how an uglywebsite could be so successful. As I looked around, I suddenlyrealized that this was not the only successful ugly website.Ebay is unbelievably ugly; Craigslist has never won an award forinnovative design, and IMDB has never even bothered to formattheir text out of the default Times New Roman. What is it aboutugly websites that makes them so successful?The Ability to Convey TrustA while back I wrote an article on Controlling Your VisitorsEyes (http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Website-Development/Controlling-Your-Visitors-Eyes.html). The main point to thisarticle was that you have less than a second to convey yourmarketing message to your visitor, and that every aspect, fromyour font selection, to the colors, navigation, and layout ofyour website plays a part in conveying your marketing message.When I wrote this article, I had beautiful, CSS designedwebsites in mind. The idea that an ugly website could present apositive message never crossed my mind. Yet the fact is, uglywebsites do have the ability to present the perfect marketingmessage. What is that message?You can trust us. We are a family run business and do not employa marketing team. Our website is simple, but functional. Mostimportantly, our goal is to serve our customers, not necessarilylearn HTML.As Internet professionals, we often forget that a large part ofour society is actually afraid of the Internet. Although onlineshopping is growing, most people still have concerns aboutonline security and the impersonal nature of the web. Mostpeople do not know how to surf efficiently and use only thedefault tools that are given to them when they take theircomputer out of the box.And this is one reason that ugly websites can sell. The lack ofprofessionalism and a polished look leads one to believe thatthey are dealing with an individual. Websites cannot be trusted,but individuals can be trusted.Function Over FormAlthough the above theory holds true in many examples, I believethere is more to the success of ugly websites than justconveying trust. Many of the websites that I referenced abovehave one underlying trait that can be attributed to theirsuccess: they are extremely easy to use.Google is probably the best example of how functionality overform can lead to success. When Google initially launched, everyother major search engine was in the process of transformingthemselves into a portal that would offer users all theinformation they could possibly want, and probably more thanthey really would want. Google, on the other hand, made theirwebsite ridiculously simple. There is one purpose to Google tosearch the web. Nothing else was there to distract you from thisone goal. It certainly did not hurt that Google was able toserve up relevant results, but the simplicity of the system waskey to winning over users.Sites like Drudge Report and Craigslist can also trace much oftheir success back to their functionality. Drudge Report is avery simple website that is essentially a collection of links tonews stories. Most of the time, the Drudge Report does not evenlink over to content on their own website. Users who wanted aninteresting collection of links to various news stories couldfind them all on one simple page. Craigslist also boastssimplicity. The website is simple to browse, simple to post, andsimple to use. Because of its simplicity, it grew.The general lesson here is simplicity. A beautiful website maydraw a user in initially, but a simple website will keep yourusers coming back. If one of your users gets lost trying tonavigate your website, check out of your web store, or findsimple contact information, then you unnecessarily areincreasing the chances that this user will simply leave.Ugliness By Application Not By RuleAlthough ugly websites are often easier to use and can convey aunique sense of trust, ugliness is not a rule that should applyto all websites. In fact, the vast majority of websites can beimproved by adding formatting and focusing on good site designprinciples.There are two general rules that you must keep in mind whenbuilding your website: 1) What type of message will resonatewith my visitors, and 2) Is the site easy to use?Knowing the answer to the first question is knowing what type ofvisitors you are trying to reach. Are your visitors web-savvyand thus looking for a well-designed website? Are your visitorsuncomfortable with the impersonal nature of the web and justlooking for a simple website that is easy for them to use? Areyour visitors scared of using online payment processing, or dothey prefer the convenience of paying online where they do nothave to talk to a person?The second question is a rule that should apply to everywebsite: functionality is more important than the design of yourwebsite. This does not mean, however, that a beautiful websitecannot be easy to use. What this does mean is that you shouldnever sacrifice the usability of your website for a fancy designeffect or a more visually appealing website.In Conclusion It's Not Necessarily Ugliness That SellsAs website owners, it is very easy to get caught up in thedesign of our websites. We want to present our businesses tovisitors in the best way possible, and as we get familiar withweb technologies and design techniques, it is easy to focussolely on the design of a website from the standpoint of whatlooks good rather than the message our website conveys.What we need to keep in mind, is that websites are meant to beused used for reading, used for networking, used for shopping,etc. Websites, like any other marketing tool, convey a messageand are an invitation for visitors to trust us. Our design needsto reflect this.Take a moment today to look over your website. Is it really easyto use? Have you been more worried about the look of yourwebsite than its functionality? Would it be more effective if itwere simpler in its design?================================================================Mark Daoust is the owner of Site Reference(http://www.site-reference.com/).This article may be reprinted as long as all links are active,including a link to the article's original location which can befound at (http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Website-Development/The-Surprising-Truth-About-Ugly-Websites.html)================================================================
