This post goes out to Link of Yamagato Industries Business Report and LQA of How Am I *Not* Myself. I've been hacking html since I was 13, so friends often ask me about web stuff. Anyway, I was discussing the intricacies of WordPress themes and blog design with my comrades, and although many bytes of data were exchanged, I couldn't help but think, "Do I even believe in what I am saying? Does any of this matter?" Really, how important is web design in today's world of RSS feeds and mobile formatted websites?
Oh look, the 'user experience' people are already gathering their riotous mob and marching up to my residence. Let's get something straight, I am not saying that 'Kubrick should be enough for anyone,' (please tell me someone gets that reference). What I am saying, is that web design isn't what it used to be, and what your website looks like is less important than you think it is.
Flash
It's no secret that I have no love for Flash. What started as Macromedia's incredible new low-bandwidth ad delivery medium has become a bandwidth heavy, inescapable, behemoth. Designers use it as a crutch, choosing it over the appropriate CSS/HTML for even the simplest navigation tasks. Most web jobs require a soft mallet; Flash is a sledgehammer. (And don't get me started on the restaurant industry's collective misuse of flash and 'intro' pages)
Most blogs depend on Flash, and it is mainly used for media embeds. After all, without cute video embeds, blogs would be pretty boring. Embedding is super easy, and HD video has made fullscreen viewing enjoyable. So, as long as the video works, is anyone paying attention to the rest of the blog? Do you even look at the sidebar or footer?
RSS
Prior to 2008, I used to launch about 15 individual sites every time I opened up Firefox/Phoenix/Firebird/IE/Netscape/Mosaic/whatever. There was so much crap to sort through, so many useless elements being loaded - and everytime I hit refresh I was hoping for a new story.
Today every website on earth has an RSS feed, and the benefits are seemingly endless. I can follow upwards of 50 websites, news feeds, blogs, and webcomics without missing a beat. I haven't been to the slashdot/engadget/lifehacker front page in over two years - no more ad heavy pages or extraneous flash elements.
And let's not start crying about lost ad revenue. Several sites have successfully included ad's into their RSS feeds. I don't have the conversion rates, but these ads are short, sweet, and unobtrusive.
Granted, RSS strips out some formatting, typography, special characters and royally screws with jump/more tags - but to those who believe in it, that is a negligible price for the the benefits of aggregation. And who even clicks on jumps anyway? If you don't have a compelling first paragraph, you might as well not have written anything.
Mobile
Similiar to RSS, Smartphones have changed how we view the web. Phones have small screens and most don't do flash (yet). All the sidebars, large header graphics, etc are just reducing the viewport more and more. The best mobile sites are streamlined and spartan.
Graphics
You know those ridiculous image maps/slices that people put together instead of using typographical elements? They look cool at first, but they are another crutch that bad designers use to cover up their inability to use html properly. If you are using images of text instead of regular text, you just made life harder for your readers, because you can't easily index that text. The web is not some digital alley to be plastered with interactive movie posters. It is a medium for disseminating information effectively, cheaply, and quickly. Writing good html takes less time than making complicated graphics.
HTML 5 / CSS / whatever the kids are on about these days
I am a big CSS/HTML Nazi. I didn't start out that way, but it has truly transformed my life and coincides with my beliefs in reusable code. Well formed CSS can make even the most minimal of sites look beautiful, and on multiple platforms. (cough nealshyam.com cough)
But again, with RSS and Flash making up such a large part of the blog experience these days, how important are pixel pushers like myself? Are people even paying attention to all the work I did to center my divs/floats and get them to clear properly? No one ever says "Neal, I really like the way you designed your blog's main page."
Themes
Part of why no one cares about your design, is because you likely had nothing to do with it. How many of us use premade or the default WP themes? Kubrick (and K2!) is remarkably clean and simple, but earth shattering it is not. Flickr feeds, twitter widgets, and your blogroll are just distractions. We include them on our webpages because every other blog/theme has them, but are they contributing to our page views? Conversions? Comments? I doubt it.
And there in lies my point, your blog is defined by it's content, not by the pretty background and borders. If your blog is any good, the design is irrelevant!
The Reality
Content is king. Garbage In, Garbage Out. Even great blogs can look like crap. In fact, the savviest readers aren't even looking at your masterpiece design. So, perhaps we should focus a little less on rounded corners and a little more on coherent journalism. Knowwhutimsayin?
(And yes, I know the AudioShocker uses embeds, header graphics, and we aren't exactly build for mobile, but our writing is fantastic!)
totally awesome post. every web designer should read this. you've always been right about Flash, even when everyone else was wrong. as someone who gets paid to write websites all day (not this site, sadly -- SOMEBODY PAY US!!!), this is the sort of stuff i talk about all day and i couldn't agree more.
Speaking of elegant HTML/CSS, this site, hand-coded by yours truly ain't no slouch either (if I do say so myself).
I call foul on the image maps Pete. It's not like there are multiple hotspots in the image. Why not just link the whole image? And why is the site written in ASP when all the pages are static HTML?
But, I approve the use of stylesheets and the lack of tables. Tables are second only to frames on my shitlist.
hahahaha i love tables if only because i know them, while knowing no CSS.
I think it's image map, singular. Just the entrance page.
It's written in ASP for some ersatz content management. If there's a way to include files (header, contents sidebar, footer) via just HTML and CSS I'd embrace it.
AudioShocker Shoutouts!
previous issue had the image map thing too, thus plural.
it looks like you are only using asp for the main pages, and relying on static html for individual stories - yet they all have the same headers/sidebars. then another issue relies on asp. i find your mish mash of html/asp rather confusing. you should seriously consider a 'real' cms.
but, perhaps you prove my points above with this mismashery. If the content is good, (a henry rollins interview is always good), and people can at minimum find/read your content, then the design starts to become less and less relevant.
thanks neal. maybe someday i'll make a real website.
Yeah, Online #1 used a table for its layout too. Older site (before I cracked down and made myself make the whole thing in CSS). So yeah, the "previous issue" doesn't utilize the < --include-->ing, but it's way less elegant, and it's way too much of a pain in the ass to modify all those static HTML pages by hand, and propagate updates too.
I'd use a CMS, but the only one I know at all, Joomla, is on PHP, and my University only supports ASP.
Hey now,
Flash is how I make a living. Okay, maybe it's not, but flash sites can be incredibly fun and cool when done properly. A lot of my portfolio sites are full on flash, mostly because I'm not an HTML/CSS/Code wizard, I'm a graphic designer who makes webpage layouts. This is why wordpress and customizing it to fit my needs are so incredibly difficult. I'm 95% sure I have ADD or something when it comes to learning code, because I just can't focus that well it seems.
Anyways, your article does ring true. Feeds and other bits of content far outweigh any design or cleanliness to a site. In HealingTouch's case, it's more a matter of properly organizing stuff, so first time comers to a blog or site will understand where things are and what things are. That's always the goal of any design, giving the user something they can look at and easily understand. Most blogs, aren't, because they're covered in links to this and that and widgets out the ass, etc. HealingTouch's current incarnation is no exception to this, haha.
- Link
Link. I visited Adobe over break as part of a tech trek with b-school. Adobe gave us this great presentation, told us about potential jobs, and had awesome offices. And I really want to apply for some of those jobs too - but part of me is like --- WAIT! These are the same people that bought Macromedia and extended Flash into the rotting pile of garbage it is today. Talk about internal conflict.
AudioShocker Shoutouts!