I want to state that now because a lot of so-called "web designers" are coders. There's a big difference between the two; Design denotes a sense artistic ability while coding is a skill. OR:
RIGHT-BRAINED = Arts
LEFT-BRAINED = Smarts
So, I'm right-minded. I love art, weird stuff, and and generally creating hell. When it comes to making them happen... well, I won't lie, I'm not great at it. My best friend is a coder and he's given me a ton of help and I couldn't repay him enough. A lot of my friends are more left-brained than right because, just like your brain, you need both left and right in order to get something done. In turn, you can't have a great website without both a great design and a working, functional, and correct code.
I mention all of that just so I can say this: YOUR WEBSITE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck, I can't get close to enough exclamation points for this one! Seriously, it does. Why does it suck? Because you decided to go that horribly lame, over-used, suburban, cookie-cutter, god-awful terrible, idiotic, horrible, gag-inducing design known as WEB 2.0. Well, I'm here to tell you YOU SUCK! YOU FUCKING SUCK!
God, that felt good. REAL good. You have no idea how long I wanted to scream that at the top of my e-lungs.
OK, being constructive now, yes, your website is a horrible abomination to web design. Why? Because your making the web ugly again. Very, very ugly. Now, if your like me, you regularly head over to web design blogs and marvel at how cool they look, the awesome tutorials, and want to aspire to create something great. In turn, your not sure what to do for your own design. If your like me, you design a site in Photoshop, use image ready, plop it into Dreamweaver and BAM! You got yourself a website. But show the code to a coder... and, well, say hello to a new orifice in your body.
Too often web design has become about "trends". It's a fairly recent thing, really, when you consider that anyone and everyone had their own idea of what a website should be up until 2004. By then, everyone had basically been online and came to expect things, like a navigation bar at the top of the page, content, not to be bombarded with flashing text, etc... basically, whatever you see on MySpace now.
In turn, the internet has accepted some insanely boring web design practices, and I won't call it the "Web 2.0" look. No. It's "Earthy". I wish I was kidding.
I'm going to use an example. I'm going to sound mean because, frankly, I'm sick of seeing this stuff happen. Now, this is a great site and I, personally, hate the re-design. That's me. But this is what I mean:
Now, the design isn't bad. As much as I may say something "sucks", it's because I have a limited vocabulary and I just love saying that word. A lot. But I hate the fact that the trend now is to take all the interesting and cool-looking concepts and instead create this ultra-sleek and "modern" style of site with soft gradients. It looks nice in and of itself, but god, that's 99% of the web it seems.
The "earthy" web design is the trend because, let's face it, America as a nation is coming into an age where we no longer see ourselves as immortal; we really understand that the earth matters and we need to conserve energy and reduce waste. We translate that into our once-crowded and jumbled websites and, in turn, have created a design that is insanely boring.
We've created sites where content is king, but the content tends to be boring and nothing more than a place holder for the blog we're really pushing instead. The design of this blog, for example, is boring. I hate it. I haven't done much to change it since, frankly, I don't really care. I just come here to rant. But that's my point. The blog is king in terms of websites now, and the design isn't.
Example? OK.
Here's a link to an AWESOME tutorial on making a website with Photohshop. The problem? Would you ever want to go to a site like that? Seriously, would you? Me? Only if it had some sweet content.
Now, I've spent all this time complaining about web site design and not offering solutions. So what do I think should be the new trend? Simple: Be yourselves again.
To me, a good website is defined by the personality of the site. Navigation and content needs to be simple to understand and you should be able to tell what's going on in the first 4 seconds. I'll go more in all of this later, but a few of my favorite sites will explain it better:
MEGADETH.COM - Welcome to the next evolution of web design! Dave McRobb has been designing the Megadeth.com site since it first came out in 1995, the FIRST band web site ever, mind you. The current version uses a flash navigation that loads quickly and looks great. The content is updated daily, and there's more than enough reason for anyone to keep coming back. The design is top-notch, fun, interesting, and makes you want to come back for more.
GOMEDIAZINE.COM - The site has a really interesting design, great articles and advice, and is just overall very nice. It's how to use the Web 2.0 philopshy and still have an interesting site.
These articles ha more than I can post:
Thanks to School Is In Session - 100 Design Articles To Keep You Motivated : Part 1
Now, all of this wasn't simply to insult or tear down people who do or want that look; on the contrary, I actually like the design to a degree. I think it sucks that everyone is doing it and, in turn, is ruining an otherwise decent aesthetic value. It's like going from your house to some urban apartment loft; your house is a little messy and it's use. That person with the apartment has next to nothing in it, it looks really clean and minimalistic. Then again, that person most likely doesn't have the money to get "Stuff" for it, anyway.
In the end, I just want people to just start using their right brain instead of their left when it comes to design. I'm a damn good designer, but I suck at coding. I'll post more later, but for now... consider this part 1.
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