Finally Done!

Posted on May 22, 2006 -- Drew Stauffer

It’s been a little over a month and I’m still getting situated in my new place. I have been “in” my new place for 3 weeks now and I just got my internet back. It has been so frustrating not being able to do what I need to do. All of my clients, personal work…everything has to be put on hold and a month is a long time.

But I’m in now and its back to business!!


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Ugly websites that work

Posted on May 1, 2006 -- Drew Stauffer

I’ve seen a lot of articles lately about why ugly sites are getting so much traffic. Some of these sites include Craig’s List and Plenty of Fish. These sites aren’t attractive, but they are getting traffic, why is that? Sites like Craig’s list are not design heavy at all. In fact it looks like they took the design budget and threw it out the window.

The fact is it’s easy, easy to use, easy to navigate, and easy to get out.  At the end of the day it’s all about usability. These sites get the repeat traffic because they are easy to use. Users can become comfortable with a layout of a site. People use what works for them.

Can we meet in the middle?

It is our job as designers to make a content rich site look easy to use and navigate. Unfortunately some designers care more about the design elements instead of the purpose of the site. There is no reason why Craig’s List has to look like it was built with early 90’s HTML. Of course you could never convince them to change it since you don’t fix what ain’t broke. If future designers can take a piece of the usability pie and incorporate in some elegant design then it could be a match made in heaven.


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