We have all seen them: web sites that have great stuff on them but which look like they were designed by a trash compactor. Mark Daoust of SiteReference delves into them in his posting, The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites.
He makes some good points, in particular that some target audiences will be put-off by a site which looks too professionally designed. You may be able to gain mileage with the mom ‘n’ pop, home-baked look.
His article is a good read, but in case you are short on time, here is the gist:
There are two general rules that you must keep in mind when building your website: 1) What type of message will resonate with my visitors, and 2) Is the site easy to use?
Nothing earth-shaking here but I do agree with his back-to-basics message. It is very easy to get caught up in the ancillary details of your web site and to lose track of its purpose: Does your site do what you need it to do and do your visitors find it easy to use?
