You will probably agree with me that beauty is subjective. Some would say that good design is not subjective, but follows set principles. Jason Fried of 37 Signals opines that the Drudge Report (shown below), is an ‘aesthetic masterpiece’.
What criteria do you use to evaluate website design? Is it totally based on results, or are there other factors?
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November 20th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I am reminded about the old adage: Form follows Function. Drudge is a pure aggregator. Its iconic. Its a self serving destination property. It’s not competing for eyeballs. Its not trying to convert. Those who go there go pre-converted, baked and ready to serve. No CTR. No click stream analysis. No content tweaking. No larger business goal to serve.
I recently undertook a redesign of a site where I had to dig into the analytics data and marry that with the client’s business objectives before I could come up with a design which was somewhat satisfactory.
Drudge on the other hand has no such worries. The design works. If it aint broke – don’t fix it. It would be interesting to dig into the demographic profile of the visitors. I guessed – largely male, over the hill (30+), from text terminal heaven (The courier font!). Quancast says as much
http://www.quantcast.com/drudge.com
November 20th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
The design definitely avoids distraction, abey.
I remember being a little confused about what to do the first time I visited the site, though. All the white space above the screen ‘fold’ and it seemed like there was something missing that hadn’t loaded yet. All the content is below the fold.
Do you think there could be layout changes that would make it even easier to use or is it perfect?
And, does its simplicity make it beautiful?
Also, the link you provided was for a competitor. The Drudge Report link at Quantcast is: http://www.quantcast.com/drudgereport.com
November 21st, 2008 at 2:34 am
Thanks for the correct link. The skew is even more pronounced … all those UNIX boys in the trenches
IMO Drudge is catering to a specific demography, where engagement is content and not the pretty face. From what Jason says the design was less inspired and more utilitarian when it started out.
We could think of hundreds of layout changes to make it easier to use (I’d really like the links to open in a new page rather than hit the back button) – and run GWO to test it! – but Joel Spolsky said it ‘Usability is what the user wants’ – and there are 15 million of those who are ingrained into the current layout.
The ad banner above the fold is interesting. Its a in your face statement about the brand. Try that elsewhere and you would lose your audience faster than you could blink. When I first visited yesterday the banner was 300×250, today its the regular 728×90. In IE today its shows 300×250. What’s the idea? Punish first time visitors?
Drudge is totally counterintuitive to conversion practices that are known to work. You can only surmise that the brand powers the site – nothing else.
Simplicity is always beautiful. On Drudge am guessing you will appreciate that when you become a regular there. Is it pleasing to the (my) eye? Yuck.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Good thoughts, abey.
We know all too well the skew of an ingrained visitor base. This is one of the challenges in optimizing home pages specifically. Not only does the test variation have to be better for new visitors, it has to be so much better that the improved CR for new visitors outweighs the initial disorientation that the repeat visitor may face with a new design.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
On Drudge? Man that would be something
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