Have a read of this article.

The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites

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Or you could say that they make money despite their uglyness.

A quote from a famous movie kind of sums up the effect:
"There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!"

Well designed and pretty websites are fine but if they distract from the information that they are supposed to convey, then they are worthless to a business.

Regards...jmcc

If it detracts from the content then it is not well designed. It might be pretty but not well designed.

True. The problem with a lot of web design is that it is still a text based medium. Many of the ugly sites are information heavy text sites and people might feel more comfortable absorbing large amounts of information from a design that looks more like a printed page than a full colour brochure.

From some of the sites I've seen, it is clear that their web designers have never had any print experience and don't know how to use fonts effectively. The ugly sites often use fonts very well, often using different fonts as almost subliminal navigation cues.

Regards...jmcc

I don't think a website popularity is about its ugliness or prettiness. I think what makes a website popular is about its usefulness.
It could be pretty or ugly, but at the end of the day, if it has something that is useful or interesting to people, it will make it.

I don't disagree.
However if a site was more attractive would people use it more and be more inclined about passing the link along to a friend?!!
It could make the difference between a useful site and a useful and really popular site.

Design isn't just about some kind of single-faceted aesthetic. It's about use of fonts, layout, the clarity of the interface, presentation and amount of textual information, imagery and photography, colours used, etc, etc.

There is a prevailing attitude that the web is a text-based medium and therefore this exonerates poor design. It doesn't. If you want to get your message across then nobody is stopping you from setting up a website and designing it any way you want. But if you're offering a professional service to clients then the aesthetic has to be of a certain standard. You don't have to be Leonardo Da Vinci - keep it nice and simple if you want. But if one is designing ugly, albeit functional, websites and selling them on for profit then I would call foul.

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