
Are We Making the Web A Bit Bland? - showngo
http://brooksreview.net/2011/01/bland-web/
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Umalu
Blandness is in the eye of the beholder. The writer of this piece places a
high value on his site's design. Others have a different view of good design.
Still others value content over design. The beauty of the internet is that we
can all consume this content in whatever form makes sense for us. This amazing
multiplicity seems anything but bland to me.

~~~
AndyParkinson
Its a bit meta and hard to swallow for a geek like me, but somehow I actually
get what he's saying.

I believe the point that Brooks is trying to make is that the package and the
content come together as one to convey the message as the author intended to
convey it.

I have a few places that I write and I've been going through the process of
putting a lot of thought into redesigning them to better match the tone and
feel that I want each place to convey. Part of that process is making sure the
content is clear and easy to read. The sidebar elements are not overly
distracting, yet they do not disappear, etc.

Its interesting to read the same thing I wrote in different themes as it does
seem to feel different for some inexplicable reason.

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adestefan
I don't give a crap about what your site looks like. I'm on the Internet for
content and quick access to that content. The "quick access" is the part that
means a site should be easy to read, understandable and accessible.

~~~
jamesteow
Conversely, I care about what peoples site looks like. I'm on the Internet
both for content and visual inspiration.

It's not a zero sum game. It's possible to have things that are functional and
pretty.

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jaysonelliot
I'm looking forward to a web where most "sites" are irrelevant, and hardly
ever visited.

I'm tired of having to dig through multiple sites to find the answer to a
problem or question, or to visit multiple sites to get a stream of information
that I'm interested in.

I'd much rather have a machine-readable web and an intelligent agent to fetch
info for me.

I really don't need flashy intros, flaming logos, over-designed background
images and a pile of animated advertisements.

If that makes the web bland, then bring it on.

~~~
larrik
You're basically describing a slightly more useful Wolfram Alpha. Is that
really what you want?

~~~
jaysonelliot
I'm actually describing a future like Douglas Adams and Tom Baker showed in
the 1991 film "Hyperland," or the vision Tim Berners Lee has outlined with the
Semantic web.

I definitely want that.

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drinian
Hacker News is a good example of how to make a site "bland" and yet instantly
recognizable, I think.

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bergie
The same blandness obviously applies to content being read via RSS aggregators
or Planets. The question then is whether content is king, or whether site
design is an integral part of it.

For example, on my blog every article shows the location posted (with a map),
and photos from the week the article was written. In my view this helps
readers to put the contents into context, but obviously with a feed reader (or
InstaPaper) this context is lost.

