The Good Web Design Enigma - Craigslist

I've done it, you have probably done it and other people do it to the tune of 24 million unique visitors per month. I am talking about visiting/using Craigslist. According to Alexa, it is one of the top 100 sites on the internet (66 as of today)

Everything that modern web design accepts as best practices can now be thrown out the window. OK, not really but you have to admit there are some talking points here.

If you have ever been to Craigslist, you know what I am referring to. Plain with simple blue text on white space. No design, no borders, no gradients, no graphics, NOTHING. It looks kind of like a word document. BUT wait a second there Captain, it works and it works good!

Why does it work? Content. Although it isn't pretty, it gets the job done, just like my rusty old lawnmower. The content is real, the site is relatively easy to use, and it gets results. What more can you ask for right? Well maybe SOME design.

I am more if a aesthetics person when it comes to web design and I think it does make a difference to the consuming public. That is why so many "consumers" love 100% Flash websites. They look great and they are fun to play around on. BUT in the end, developers know that they are not the best for SEO. Did you ever wonder why all the sites that sell flash templates, build their sites in html, asp, php or xhtml? Probably the same reason that most of the listings on a SERP for the search term "flash developers" are built in the same way.

One of the coolest websites that I have seen is the 2AdvancedStudios website. The current version and the past 2 or 3 versions have been simply AWESOME. These guys are definitely the masters of Flash but I was unable to find their site if I was searching for flash designers or flash developers. Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing here! The people at 2Advanced do unbelievable work. They just have to market their site differently.

Here is an excerpt from a design critique written by Kate Bronstad: "When Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, was asked why the site was 'visually boring', he explained that "we all consume too much media, and we just want to get to the point sometimes" (Weidaw). In addition to valuing clarity, Newmark and his colleagues probably want to impress upon their users that Craigslist isn't some untrustworthy corporation, and, in fact, Craigslist is a community. Based on the site's success, this impression might be getting across to a lot of people. If Craigslist is so popular, should it be messed with? Maybe not -but there could be a way to retain the values of the Craig and company (user loyalty, minimal design, content heavy) while making the Craigslist experience a little more pleasant for its legions of users, some of whom might not have grown to love the dizzying blue and purple bricks of text."

I think I tend to agree with this assessment. There can be a happy medium between minimalism and an over the top visual orgasm. But who am I? Since I don't have a site that's getting 24 million unique visitors per month, you really don't have to listen to me. :) However, I do have over 80,000 uniques so far this month, thanks to my stumbling friends. <--shameless self plug so you will buy an ad.>

So what's the point here? It's all about the content and functionality. You can have the best looking website in the world but if users don't find it useful or it serves no purpose, they won't be coming back. Design your site so people will want to come back. The ultimate compliment for any website is a RSS subscription or an add to the user's favorites. For this very reason I am going to take another opportunity to thank the readers of The Big Bald Blog, after all it's all about you, and without you I wouldn't be doing this. Thanks!

Let me know what you like to see in a website. Oh, and if I had a typo you would tell me wouldn't you?

 

That Flash is Pretty Flashy

So I get an email from a guy wanting an evaluation on his flash site before it goes live. The site is a well put together design and very visually appealing. The one problem is that there is no content, visual, HTML or otherwise. It is basically one big flash movie broken up into little flash movies accessible by the "mystery meat" navigation.

He told me that he wanted to make sure that his site was "found" on the Internet and that was the primary goal. I referenced countless articles that spoke about SEM and how flash was best used as elements within the site, including a post on Google's Webmaster Central Blog that said "Try to use Flash only where it is needed..." Linking strategies aside, I told him that "content was king" and how compelling and properly written content with appropriate key word density would yield better results than a flashy looking website.

The next day I got an email from his web designer that said I was "horribly wrong" and if "the design sucks then content will not mean anything." He went on to say that flash has been the SEO standard since October of 2004. To which I retorted, "ohh yeah, I forgot about that" and left it at that.

According Johnathan Hochman there are ways to make flash sites "spiderable" but not may designers will do it. Johnatan Hochman also concedes that, "A site built entirely with Flash suffers a great disadvantage because it lacks page structure to organize the content, internal linking, and unique page titles. One remedy is to create distinct HTML pages to represent each Flash "page,"... Most SEO expert agree that flash should be used as elements in HTML pages where spiders can glean the information and return home with real content.

Your comments are welcome!