Bad Design Is Not Better
There’s been some noise lately suggesting that bad design is good or it’s the anti-marketing design (ugly site) that’s what makes a website successful.
I disagree, but for arguments sake let’s take a look at some of the more successful websites.
Let’s take Craigslist, Google, eBay, and Amazon to name a few. What do all these sites have in common? They’re not beautiful that’s for sure. I wouldn’t say that Craigslist and Google are ugly, but their sure not pretty either. Amazon and eBay on the other hand are pretty damn ugly.
So what makes these sites so successful? Is it because they’re ugly? I think not. Google and Craigslist and are successful because the user interface is straight forward and simple. That and their customers are great evangelists. So what then makes Amazon and eBay so popular? Both of these sites have horrible user interfaces so we know it’s not that. I’d say it’s because they were both first to market in their niches and have since dominated.
Yes, having a website that is simple to use and fast is one key to being successful, but I wouldn’t design your website to look like ass on purpose. For every popular website that’s ugly there’s 5 great looking popular sites.
What’s your take on this?
Cameron Olthuis is the Founder of
A good design can also make a site successful. By creating a hard to use and ugly website you are opening the doors for someone else to enter your market.
The challenge is to start simple and grow intelligently without bloating the design. Adding rich functionality without complicating the UI is an art.