Why many times not so great looking sites out-perform well designed ones? Opinions..

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chipmunk

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As we all know, many times not so great looking sites/landing pages out-perform well designed ones. I would like to get some comments and opinions on this, as I think this is a really interesting topic that many can learn from.

I think there are a few factors involved. In my opinion, a lot has to do with an individual’s comfort zone and the environment they come from and ultimately reach.

Take for example your average Joe from suburbia walking around and shopping on Rodeo Drive. Going into these "high end" stores could become overwhelming for this person. This feeling of being overwhelmed has to do more with the environment that this person is placed into and originally came from, than the actual price tag of the items. Even if this average Joe had tons of money, they still could not relate to the environment around them.

…I think the same scenario as above occurs on the web with why sometimes poorly designed sites out perform well designed ones.


-=Chipmunk=-
 


It's not a matter of "good design" or "bad design", it's a matter of "effective design". Effective design will always outperform. Split testing is key, sometimes changing a signup box from red to yellow will result in a 5% better conversion rate. I have seen it.

In my opinion, having a site that is designed well will always do better than a shitty looking site (when all element placements and copy are the same). Your opinion of a nice site design and mine are probably different (fuck bells and whistles). Nice site design adds the elements of "trust" and "cool". A good designer can lead the viewers eye to the prize.
 
My thinking is that people prefer simplicity. If they are online to obtain information on a topic, they are put off by flash banners, animated gifs, etc. If they are trying to purchase something, they want to be able to focus on that item, its image, description and price, and not be distracted by all the stuff that's going on in the sidebars. And popups/unders are annoying as well. Some of the websites that you see these days are just plain tacky with all of the bells and whistles, it's as if the designer wants to showcase his talents instead of developing a functional, user friendly, income producing site. Anyway, the preference for simplicity is good news for me since my web design abilities aren't that advanced and I'll only hire a pro for certain projects :)
 
Yes, this has been discussed before.
Especially in the US, a lot of "designed" sites are actually over-designed.

For my tastes, they often leave a crowded, color-explosion, hey-look-at-me impression which I don't particularly enjoy.

Simpler sites are often able to drive the point home more effectively and guide the visitor to the desired area / action / click.

::emp::
 
There are many who like to keep it simple so flashy, over designed sites turn them away and install a feeling that the site only wants their cash asap (which is often true but there are more subtle ways to do this haha).

Also, (some) poorly designed sites are often old and been around forever and due to long presence have good authority, trust, rankings and may therefore perform very well or at least better than flashy looking ones for the reasons mentioned.

cheers
 
I think there are a few reasons that these sites sometimes work. I say sometimes, because there's no way all kinds of old and ugly sites are doing killer business.

- Niche and target demographic. Certain markets appeal to "simple minds" so to speak. :) Take smiley sites as an example. Who goes online looking for smileys? Harvard educated college grads or IT professionals? Hardly... Sites like that can get away with a shitty design because they appeal to the masses of teenagers (and adolescents) who couldn't care less what the site looks like - as long as they get their quick fix of free smilies. Another example is sites that target not-so-computer-savvy surfers like people aged 40-50+. Many aren't accustomed to seeing other fancy and flashy sites, and might come across an ugly site thinking that it is pretty neat looking. Niche related? Yeah - think of products that these groups of people are interested in, and check out how some of those sites look. ;)

- Age and ranking. As was mentioned right before my post, I also agree that a lot of uglier sites are actually old and have remained unchanged for many years. Their domains simply rank very well for age and with all the business pouring in as a result of it - why change it if it ain't broken? :)

- Simple is sometimes better. Like emp pointed out, more is less. I've been to sites too where I've been turned off by the gawdy and overly done design. They probably spent tons of hours, coding and money on their designs - but in the end it defeats the purpose.

The most important thing about design regardless of niche / market is this: First impression is key. Win over your visitors in the first 4 seconds or don't win them at all.
 
I've seen some pretty huge affiliates and some of their pretty "shitty" looking landing pages. It's about knowing what gets the consumer to click through.

-FAST LOADING PAGE (there are cavemen out there still who use dial up)
-an obvious call to action
-easy color schemes
 
I have had a site sell stuff when it wasnt finished.

It got into MSN and I was testing the SEO and I stumbled on high rankings and people were buying.

Most of the pictures werent done.... the logo was crap... and the naviagtion was a bit off.... I was getting sales emails and I was like WTF???
 
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