Appalling Appeal: Why people love ugly websites
Recently, our creative design team—graphic designer, SEO technician and copywriter—were charged with redeveloping a few websites. We have a series of similarly-themed pages, each with a slightly different layout. Some were converting exceptionally well, while others were not doing so hot. We all had our theories as to why some performed poorly—one index page broke the above-the-fold rule, one offered fewer paths to conversion and one was aesthetically pleasing.
Wait a second. Back the truck up. Beep, beep. One site was performing poorly because it was pretty!? Sounds counterintuitive, right? It surely left me quite baffled. I can only imagine the chaos ripping through our graphic designer’s mind. Ugly is preferable—such blasphemy cannot be easily comprehended by a creative, artistic individual.
The more I thought about it the more I realized that ugly sites are not only ubiquitous, they’re popular and prosperous, too. Consider some of the most frequently visited sites—MySpace, Google, craigslist, Wikipedia, eBay, IMDB—each is dull, boring and dare I say, ugly! However, they are some of the most popular sites today—Google is the second most popular, MySpace is third and the rest fall somewhere in the top twenty.
To understand this phenomenon, I decided to do some research. I guess I learned a few things about why people frequent these sites—they’re simple, easy to navigate, load quickly and seem to have an “anti-marketing” design. However, none of this information was mind blowing and I still felt that a deeper explanation was necessarily. There are a lot of simple things in this world, yet most people opt for the more complicated scenario. Why, then, the discrepancy with websites? In an attempt to rationalize this anomalous finding, I decided to utilize some psychologically-based theories (untrained, mind you) to explain the appalling appeal of these frightful sites.
I first considered the psychology of beauty. There is a natural tendency to be attracted to those that are healthy looking. It has little to do with buns of steal, perky breasts or lack of body fat. Instead, it’s a primitive and inherent attraction to those more capable of survival. Physically fit individuals are better able to provide and procreate, consequently passing along these vital genes to future generations. Whether or not one plans to have children, they are still an animal with the natural and unavoidable desire to propagate the species. Being attracted to individuals that are more suitable for endurance makes it more likely that future offspring will be well-suited as well.
Okay, so that explains nothing. Apparently the psychology of beauty does not apply to websites. Then what is it? Consider the following hypothetical situation—one that may be the consequence of a modern psyche adaptation rather than an ingrained slant toward natural selection—you’re at Target, ready to check out with a cartload of items. As you approach the registers, you see two lanes with lights aglow. One is run by an attractive being of your preferred gender with the most appealing features you’ve ever seen: intense, twinkling eyes; sparkling, straight white teeth; a perfectly shaped and sized nose; or whatever physical traits you’re attracted to. Just witnessing this masterpiece of flesh siphons your breath and wobbles your knees. (Remember, this is a hypothetical situation—don’t question why Perfection works at Target.)
The other cashier is a slightly homely looking individual with dull eyes and a smear of acne. Not repulsive to look at but certainly no Helen of Troy. Which register do you unload at? Personally, and I believe most people would agree, I would choose the second cashier because this individual is less intimidating and I wouldn’t feel self-conscious simply being in his presence. And even though I am attracted to males, I would still choose Uncomely Female Cashier. Same goes for websites.
Web users that are slightly self-conscious (unfamiliar with technology or fearful of online security issues) opt for the homely site because it doesn’t scare them and seems more trustworthy. They can do their shopping or surfing or whatever without fear of clamming up in the face of complicated exchanges and aesthetic pleasantries. Simply put, simplicity is the sincerest form of surety.
While most of the above is just conjecture, I believe it to be a semi-logical explanation for this ugly website phenomenon. Craigslist will never launch even one ship, let alone a thousand, but it will get over eight billion page views each month. Not bad for an ugly duckling with very little swan potential.
~Angie
on September 7th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Unfortunately, ugly websites are the way of the world for many sites translated into Spanish. Companies too often just ‘throw something up there’ that’s usually a bad automatic translation of the English version.
To really get into the U.S. Hispanic market it’s important that companies take their bilingual online presence seriously. Studies have shown that most Hispanic customers would prefer to buy something from an English transaction page because it’s perceived to have more credibility. This is likely because the Spanish versions with shabby translations imply that the site is not trustworthy.
On the flip side, sometimes a successful-but-ugly Spanish website means that there simply isn’t any competiton.
Ideally, the Spanish version would be similar to the English, with an accurate and grammatically correct translation, and include some cultural details relevant to the Hispanic market.
Slowly but surely this is turning around as the Hispanic market is becoming recognized more and more in the U.S. But, unfortunately, ugly Spanish websites are currently another piece of the ugly website puzzle.
on September 21st, 2007 at 4:42 pm
You hit the nail on the head about people fearing perfection, fearing perfect beauty. I just finished nine years of research on the topic of mass appeal, and my book just landed a publisher (AMACOM). Part of that research indicates that we are primally programmed to fear perfect beauty and are more drawn to the common, the ordinary and even the homely. Not to bore you here, but in the book I quote several research studies and one case study on how an “ugly” candidate won a major state election over a so-called “stud.”
on September 24th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Not boring at all, I actually find it really fascinating. This is somewhat off the subject, but still relates to the whole less-attractive-is-more-attracting phenomenon–I’ve noticed that when I got out in somewhat frumpy clothing and don’t really doll myself up, I tend to get more attention. I guess it’s that I look more approachable when I’m not all dressed up, but also I feel more comfortable and therefore confident, and I’m sure that shines through too. There’s a time and a place for attractive people and, like in the “ugly” candidate case, people tend to respect and trust more average looking people. I wonder if it has always been that way or if it’s a product of our beauty-obsessed society. All of the Ancient Greek and Roman classics seem to impart that beauty was revered–Helen of Troy, Tambourlaine, Dido, etc. When did we start to resent beauty? I realize most of those are just stories but it is interesting. Somewhere along the way aesthetics and functionality split, but I still believe (and know in the case of websites) that they can come in one package and I hope that Internet users realize this soon. I’m on the computer all day long and I’d like some more beauty in my life! Come on, who doesn’t!
on December 4th, 2007 at 8:22 am
[...] on creating an aesthetically appealing site. Oddly enough, as noted in one of my past blogs, “Appalling Appeal,” it’s common knowledge that ugly websites perform better than flashy ones. Whether it’s [...]
on February 13th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I always pick the lane with the pretty girls