Recently I stumbled upon an
article that was somewhat surprising to me. The premise is that while we spend oodles of time making websites pretty and elegant, there’s little return on that investment.

To wit, the dating website Plenty of Fish is referenced as an “ugly” website. Now I’m not in the market for these services, but I did find the financial results compelling: $10,000 a day in ad revenue based on the community of people using the network service. So, is the website “ugly?” From a financial perspective, definitely not. People are using the service. Are they doing so in spite of the site design?

How much design is the right amount? I don’t know. But I think the differentiator here is something other than the subjective “ugly” term. I think it has to do with clarity and simplicity. Here’s a great example of the “how much design is too much design” question at work:

Microsoft Re-designs the iPod

Ugly? Or not? You decide.