This is a series of thoughts based on the reading of: How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse | Louder Than Ten
Corporate Design
For the tech savvy, it’s not a surprise that current web design trends were set by corporate design. After all, those large companies rake in money with what they do, so naturally others would want to imitate that success.
Although from a user perspective, it’s awful. This collage of websites from the linked article shows it all:
It’s an uninteresting hero image with a tagline deemed quirky by the marketing team, followed by a call to action button to purchase or subscribe to whatever product the company is offering.
Of course it’s not to say that all websites are laid out in a similar manner, but for the vast open world of the internet to have these areas of cookie cutter designs is just… boring.
The Rationale
Sure, the design is boring and sucks, but I can understand the reasoning behind why it is that way.
Those designs are responsive. Responsive means a one size approach fits all, so companies can cut costs instead of spending more money having a separate design for each type of screen size.
In addition, having simple plain designs are likely going to be more accessible than something that looks cool, but it requires accessing the site to be more of an “active” activity rather than just reading.
From a business perspective, it just seems like taking this approach is a no brainer.
The Big Question
Considering how corporate web design is both responsive and accessible, I do have a question in mind. Is there a way to have a design be both responsive and accessible, while actually being interesting?
“Interesting” referring to the content and design coordinating together to form something more brilliant than just mere content on a medium.
Surely, it’s possible. After all I would think that our UX/UI designers are talented individuals. I’m sure they’re probably bored of making corporate designs all day as well. I would suppose it’s just a matter of time and money.
I feel that if a large company were to invest their resources into coming up with a unique, interesting, responsive, and accessible design, then that could bring about a new revelation in terms of corporate web design.
But then again, maybe if I wanted to find interesting web design, I should go to somewhere else instead of a company website.
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