Do you think the trend of making non-graphic intensive templates for large sites will continue. Sometimes I look at Yahoo, MySpace, or YouTube and they look very plain - something I could design in a few hours. No flash animation, no classy layouts (though Facebook is a bit of an exception, it does have sleek looking menus with ajax). Is this just an issue of saving bandwidth and adding the KIS (keep it simple) rule?

Simple designs are for website with more focus on the content of the website. Whereas somtime graphics or images can be better alternative for the text on the website. With the concept of web 2.0 , sites have become more content-oriented and flexible than flashy sites.

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I just wonder why sites making millions of dollars still have weak designs. For example, getafreelancer.com looks way outdated and a sharper, nicer design would only cost a few hundred bucks for a site like that.

Isn't presentation as important as content?

I think that those sites that are simple yet known and very used are those who show that they are professional and compatible. Take a look at google. How can something with a plain white background can be the best search engine out there?

Light colors and plain pages make people to stay there for a while because it won’t hurt your eyes (my personal opinion). As per my knowledge people don’t like flash websites much as they take lot of time to load.



People come to your site for the useful stuff they don’t care how your site is look like. Content plays a big role in the website. A presentation comes next.

Google, My space, they don’t use any flash designs that’s why they load in your browser very fast and that’s why people like it much.

Ill ignore that ƒlash comment, as I dont want to enter a debate regarding that, however, "light colors" are proven to hurt the users eyes more then darker colors.
Its all a personal opinion, which is why I stress so much, that every forum NEEDS a light AND a dark skin!


1) Content
2) Presentation.

Your correct, however your first statement is wrong, people DO care about how it looks. If your site looks good, its easy to get around and you have good content, people will come back.

If you have a simple layout, people will be able to get around easier and it loads much faster, this is why people enjoy it.
Its really all got to do with your personal opinion, however what I have stated is the average persons feelings towards the subject (I have done a fair bit of research).

One thing...
K.I.S.S

Keep
It
Simple
Stupid

The reason those major sites keep it simple, is number one, yeah to save bandwidth, imagine hundreds of millions of people downloading 10 images every day. It would take massive amounts of bandwidth that the site would otherwise use anyways.

Plus, keeping it simple puts focus on the parts of the site that you really want (i.e. Google, only has its search bar) I find that very helpful in finding what I need instead of having to navigate of even look for anything I want.

I agree with this statement very much. Even so much that I downloaded an add-on for firefox to allow me to skin any site. Now I have a dark skin for all the major sites (Yahoo, yahoo mail, google, google mail, youtube, imdb....) Its a great thing to have, just go to userstyles.org and download the add-on. Its a great thing to have. And if you know CSS, you could make us one for this site

There are times that simple designs can create big impact for web visitors.

Im starting to enjoy the shift from those ugly template style websites to the simple but stylish design.

K.I.S.S yeah make it simple. like google. also most people like a simple design. and the most important is content. yeah.content is king.

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