Why Some Simple Sites Dominate the Web

Some of the most popular websites out there are really not very complicated. Reddit, for example, is a very heavily trafficked site that has a very simple interface. Buzzfeed is another good example.

When you're designing a website, it's easy to get carried away with complexity. You may end up in a situation where your web designer is warning you off getting too complex with your website but where you are convinced that you absolutely must have an incredibly sophisticated design to make an impression. Just as a tip: listen to your web designer.

Why Simple Works

Websites can be works of art, but they are works of functional art. People go to a website because they want information of some sort. While the presentation of that information is important, it has to serve the website.

Think of it this way. All of the elements on your website can be thought of as the different instruments in a symphony. Each of those instruments in a symphony must function to perform whatever piece the symphony is playing. If one of them is distracting from the piece, the entire thing falls apart. Any element you add to your site should enhance what is already there, not distract from it or make the site needlessly hard to navigate.

Having a complicated site is sometimes appropriate – particularly if you have a very complex and content heavy idea in mind – but all of the complexity should make using the site relatively simple.

Complexity without purpose is simply clutter. Simple works because people can go to the site, figure out where they will find what they are looking for and read it with minimal distraction. This sort of an experience really makes people like a site.

The Perils of too Much

If you have too much information on a page, it's easy to end up slowing down people's browsers, sometimes crashing people's browsers and making the website inaccessible to some people altogether. For instance, if your website has huge blocks of very dense text, it may be difficult for people with limited eyesight to enjoy your website.

Too many images can make it difficult to pay attention to written content. Too much written content can make a site intimidating. Too many advertisements and features that utilize plug-ins, such as Flash, may make a page take too long to load.

It could keep the site reloading over and over again, which is particularly annoying on some browsers, as it will cause the page to move all the way back to the top, even if the reader is already involved in the content farther down the page. Web designers can help you avoid all of these problems. They can help you to make certain that the features you want to use on your website are reliable and well designed.

Effective Advertising

One of the real advantages of going for a straightforward aesthetic with your website development is that it makes it easier to feature advertisements if you happen to use advertising is a form of monetization. If your website is too cluttered with content and advertisements, people generally will be reluctant to spend time sorting through everything to try to figure out what is what. If your content is well organized and your website is pleasantly simple, it's a lot easier for them to see advertisements that they might be interested in.

Complexity certainly does have a place in web design, but it's not the only aesthetic that you can go for. Sometimes, sites that are simply designed but that have very clean layouts and are put together with functionality in mind do a great job of keeping visitors interested.

Matt Dandurand

About the Guest Author:

Matt Dandurand is the CEO of MediaContour.com, offering web design in Los Angeles, CA.