Some websites have made a name for themselves despite faulty aesthetics.
Craigslist, for example, has the same basic, image-less design it began with in 1996. And yet, they boast 20 billion page views and 50 million new classified advertisements a month.
“It’s still easy to use. You can find what you want,” says Shaoolian. “It’s a message board, so the design works for them.”
The same goes for news compiler Reddit. The purpose of Reddit is straightforward, and so is its look. Users post questions, news, or general musings, and browse, comment or vote on posts of others.
Though it looks like a clunky message board from the mid 90s, Reddit was founded in 2005, and picked up my media honcho Condé Nast a year later. The site’s users have demonstrated their power in the past by raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Haiti earthquake victims in 2010.
Ugly design doesn’t stop a site from being influential. Take right-leaning, news aggregator the “Drudge Report.” A never evolving, messy layout hasn’t stopped the site from making headlines.
