Everything looks the same in the web
Is that now a good or a bad thing?
Ever heard of “Why Do All Websites Look the Same?”, “Unbox the Web” or “Web Design is now completely boring”? These are pretty well known articles describing the lack of diversity in the web.
The most important points of those articles are:
- The Internet suffers from a lack of imagination
- The internet consists of containers in containers in containers
- Too many interchangeable pages
- Only generic fonts are used
- Nothing is truly designed, it’s simply assumed.
Fair enough. I get the point and every statement is legitimate.
I also can guess the structure of almost every homepage of a website without even taking a look at it.
The structure of almost every Homepage:
- Header
- Nav Bar
- Main Body
- Footer
- In worst case: Ads everywhere in between
Add wishlist, my account and basket and you created the structure of an E-Commerce Shop. Well done!
But is that now really a bad thing?
Let us stick at the Online-Shop example:
I am a user experience designer. I get paid for delivering a great user experience. So the focus of my daily work is to fulfil user needs and help solving their digital problems — on good days. On bad days the client wants me to fulfil his opinion on the users needs. But thats another story. The interesting question now is: Does the user care about all those points mentioned at the beginning: Containers in containers, the fonts I used or that the structure of the E-Commerce Site I created is quite similar to other ones? We do a lot of user testing at intive. And what I nearly never get as user feedback are complaints about containers, generic fonts or that the structure of the shop looks humdrum. What users indeed do complain about are indistinct buttons, arty fonts they can hardly read or areas which can not be found because they are hidden behind some groovy animation. At the end of the day users want to search, bookmark or buy stuff. Or more generic: User want to use the digital products we create with joy. The faster and easier — the better.
Does the user care about the design at all?
So I do not think that “everything looks the same” is fundamentally a bad thing. The important point is to be clear in the usage of your website. Do you need to make money with it? Or is it just a fancy marketing weapon to attract attention? There is a great article of Matthias Ott about Clarity and Style in Design, check it out!
By the way: Ever wondered why the quad never became a legend even though it looks more unique and cooler than a scooter or car? Me neither. But I think it just does not match the user needs as good as an old-school vehicle does. There is no proper demand for it.
Take Aways:
- Differing between E-Com and Marketing is key
- Learned patterns help to guide the User. The devil (tough work) is in the detail. (Must read: https://austinkleon.com/steal/)
- Form follows function is still a thing even 2019.
Muchas gracias for reading. Always appreciate your feedback!
