So many times I've had to butt heads with individuals on this forum, who know next to nothing about effective web design/marketing.

These people often contend that a site has to be "attractive" to succeed.  And by attractive, they are referring to using "flash", "heavy graphics", etc.  These inexperienced web designers have no clue about SEO, or what people online are actually looking for in a website.

I've always tried to educate these people about the facts, but they (you know who you are) stubbornly stick to their guns.  I even furnished examples of the most successful sites on the net with basic designs, to corroborate my argument that people don't care about a site being "attractive" as long as it's fast, functional, and maintains a high uptime.

Well, read the following piece, and tell me if I'm right or wrong.
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2006/mar/27prt.html

The article contains the very same examples I've been presenting to you people all along.

Websites don't have to be particularly beautiful, but they shouldn't be ugly either!

True word

I agree.

But the point we're making is that being beautiful is not something people particularly care about on the web.  That is totally contrary to what I've heard, and in fact have had to struggle with many ignorant designers on here about.

Here is another example:

www.michaelsavage.com - get about 2 million visits per month.

Nigerian web architects need to study the web and know what matters, and what doesn't if they want to succeed online.

http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html isn't an ugly site. It is very task focused, bringing different news from different websites on a single site.

Not easy to run if you asked me.

On the internet, anything that works for you and is legitimate is what matters.

Some beautiful websites do very well and most ungly websites do badly.

So, it's neither here no there.

As long as your website is task focused, easy to use and with relevant content you are on the right track.

http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html isn't an ugly site.

That depends on what your definition of what ugly is.

That is an ugly site to me, design-wise.  However, its ugliness hasn't discouraged people from flocking to it.  That proves that people don't care about the flashy designs that some think is so important.  People would much rather get the info they need quickly than wait for flash to load.

That is an ugly site to me, design-wise

oasis, maybe what is ugly to you is simply not ugly to the people visiting the site? For instance, some people think Nairaland is ugly, but I don't. The real lesson is that overwhelming beauty is not important.

oasis, maybe what is ugly to you is simply not ugly to the people visiting the site?  For instance, some people think Nairaland is ugly, but I don't.  The real lesson is that overwhelming beauty is not important.

Are you kidding me!  Ugly is ugly.  And that site is ugly.  Compare it to these: http://www.n-sane.net/ http://www.photoshoptower.com/ http://www.phong.com/tutorials/ and tell me it's not ugly.

But the point of this thread is that it doesn't matter how ugly/beautiful a site is, it doesn't determine success.

It doesn't really matter. Have you visited slashdot? I don't like the design but it's considered an homour to be "slash-dotted". Just make sure your design has lots of alternative text representation and you're ok. For links, puting them in lists [<li>] helps a lot for search engines.

It doesn't really matter. Have you visited slashdot? I don't like the design but it's considered an homour to be "slash-dotted". Just make sure your design has lots of alternative text representation and you're ok. For links, puting them in lists [<li>] helps a lot for search engines.

Thanks for reinforcing the point I'm trying to make. The design of a website does not matter that much. Content does.

Content is king.

Both Matters
Content and Design

If you want to know if you want to know if your site is ugly or will have reapeat vistors, just check you AWSTATS, if you have have at least 40% of people bookmarking your site, that means your site is worth returning to.
It is that simple

well check mine out i'm not a bragging web professional but i think i'm cool,

www.bolajimedia.com fully design on Adobe fireworks graphics integrated and streamlime with baba agba dreamweaver

www.bolajimediaworks..com

call me if u got any deal
08028088179,08066959639

@fitinwell,

Is there any particular reason why 95%+ of your site consists of not text but image blocks?

ugly sites got more trafic than flashed up sites

I think the issue here is the definition of the word ugly. As far as webdesigning is concerned, ugly simply means a site that is poorly designed and really not because it lacks graphics or 'effizies'. A site can as well have beautiful graphics and as well be ugly due to poor color combination, heavy graphics use, poor griding and alignment, poor font use, inconsistency across pages to mention a few. From whatever angle u see it however, everything boils down to content. If a site has what a user wants, over time, the user will overlook the site's look. On the other hand, a beautiful site with nothing to offer will only get that first time attraction and will loose it over time.

Have you see craigslist.org. It is just content driving and it is successful. I agree ugly is ugly but if your content is good it doesn't matter.

@post Website Adasi -101
I guess the most important thing about a site is its user friendlines to its target audiences, PERIOD!!eg i love nairaland because t is simple and easy to use!!this sigular factor is what will determine whether its beauty or not will bring more people, its extreme beauty may bring more people if that s what makes it more user friendly to the target, and its not so fine design may bring more if it apeals to the people you target, so my point is there s no hard and fast rule about, whether beautiful site is the most effective or not!!
for example the horrific nonsense on the church of satan site appeals to the target audience, if you make that site beautiful, traffic might drop(i know thats an extreme example, but i hope you get he point)
Content is king?! yes if that is what your target audienc want, if not it remais nothing but BEAUTIFUL NONSENSE!! (target) user freindliness is the KEY!! Give your target what they want!!

@fitinwell

um, dude, making all of ur site consist of images (with no alt tags by the way) is a mortal sin in web design. I can see what u mean when u say it was done in fireworks. slices all the way! Im using a slow conection at the moment, so opening all those images was painful.

@all

i dont get all this ugly against pretty websites. i wish people would stop justifying mediocrity. Would it hurt so much if ur site was aesthetically pleasing YET functional?? and really doesn't it all depend on both? sites like digg.com and facebook aren't swirling in flash, but their code is professionally done, their applications are bountiful, and they're still pleasing on the eye. instead of wasting time here whining about how one's ugly site is functional, try and make it look it better. because, lets be honest. the pretty things attract people first. if it has functionality great. personally i rarely stick around poorly designed sites, i dont care if their codes are so good they can fight crime.

Quickygal has just hit the nail on its fu=cking head.

I just pity web designers here claiming content is king, you want ur customers to start reading your web tutorials or you want to make sales?

and again, you cant blame anyone, I developed a site recently and after completing the whole thing, my client sent me an email i didn't find funny

"Can you make our website look, something like this? http://www.icq158.com"

Pls follow that link and u know why its not funny, I need to make a balance btw what i have and what he wants
so u cant tell


@fittinwell,
as far as i can see, this was designed with fireworks and i cant see any "streamlime-ing"

quickygal:

@post Website Adasi -101
I guess the most important thing about a site is its user friendlines to its target audiences, PERIOD!!eg i love nairaland because t is simple and easy to use!!this sigular factor is what will determine whether its beauty or not will bring more people, its extreme beauty may bring more people if that s what makes it more user friendly to the target, and its not so fine design may bring more if it apeals to the people you target, so my point is there s no hard and fast rule about, whether beautiful site is the most effective or not!!
for example the horrific nonsense on the church of satan site appeals to the target audience, if you make that site beautiful, traffic might drop(i know thats an extreme example, but i hope you get he point)
Content is king?! yes if that is what your target audienc want, if not it remais nothing but BEAUTIFUL NONSENSE!! (target) user freindliness is the KEY!! Give your target what they want!!

The truth of the matter is. If you build a site with really great technology but which doesn’t give people a reason to come back over and over again, it is very difficult to build a sustained business

@Oasis, i think you have to make a clear distinction between a web developer and a web designer, we mix these two up in Nigeria a lot. Though it is possible for a single person to combine the two. Most of the site u r talking about are sites well developed ( they are well programmed) but poorly designed ( all the same good designs also consider issues such as page optimisation and as such will do away with unneccesary heavy graphics). A team work of the two party is what makes a great website!