Ugly web design Sunshine Coast
When I first started my web design business back in 1997 I learned very quickly that my customers wanted their websites to make money for them. Web design on the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, anywhere - is about balance between my customers design requirements and the ability for the website to generate business. More on web design business.
That's right – ugly websites are surprisingly effective in making money. As a person who puts business before technology, a profitable website is a website that is an unbelievably attractive website to me.
The Case of Plenty of Fish
I was struck by an example of just how effective ugly websites can be this past week as I was browsing through some web related news. I stumbled across the story of Plenty of Fish. This is a very plain looking website that offers a free online dating service much like Match.com (but without the subscription fee). There was nothing specifically 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 a second look at the website was its reported earnings.
It is reported that this website brings in over $10,000 from Adsense – in one day. Yes, you did read that correctly. For those of you counting, that is $300,000 per month and nearly one million dollars in just three months.
The example of Plenty of Fish led me to consider how an ugly website could be so successful. As I looked around, I suddenly realized that this was not the only successful ugly website.
Ebay is ugly in the eyes of graphic designers and has never won an award for innovative design. IMDB has never even bothered to format their text out of the default Times New Roman. What is it about ugly websites that makes them so successful?
The Ability to Convey Trust Through Web Design
We have an article understanding your Visitors Eyes. The main point to this article was that you have less than a second to convey your marketing message to your visitor, and that every aspect, from your font selection, to the colors, navigation, and layout of your website plays a part in conveying your marketing message.
When I wrote this article, I had beautiful, CSS designed websites in mind. The idea that an ugly website could present a positive message never crossed my mind. Yet the fact is, ugly websites do have the ability to present the perfect marketing message. What is that message?
You can trust us. We are a family run business and do not employ a marketing team. Our website is simple, but functional. Most importantly, our goal is to serve our customers, not necessarily learn HTML. Read the entire article on web design trust.
As web designers, we often forget that a large part of our society is actually afraid of the Internet. Although online shopping is growing, most people still have concerns about online security and the impersonal nature of the web. Most people do not know how to surf efficiently and use only the default tools that are given to them when they take their computer out of the box.
And this is one reason that ugly websites can sell. The lack of professionalism and a polished look leads one to believe that they are dealing with an individual. Websites cannot be trusted, but individuals can be trusted.
Web Design Function Over Form
Although the above theory holds true in many examples, I believe there is more to the success of ugly websites than just conveying trust. Many of the websites that I referenced above have one underlying trait that can be attributed to their success: they are extremely easy to use.
Google is probably the best example of how functionality over form can lead to success. When Google initially launched, every other major search engine was in the process of transforming themselves into a portal that would offer users all the information they could possibly want, and probably more than they really would want. Google, on the other hand, made their website ridiculously simple. There is one purpose to Google – to search the web. Nothing else was there to distract you from this one goal. It certainly did not hurt that Google was able to serve up relevant results, but the simplicity of the system was key to winning over users.
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