Screw Web 2.0 Design Fundamentalism

By Nick | January 15th, 2010

There is an unspoken rule that if you are in the web design, or software development business, that you must have an unbridled love for minimalistic web design. For. Every. Site. You. Make.

Sure: for webapps, a predictable interface and uncluttered design is important for usability. People want to get stuff done. Simple designs let them do that quickly. Same goes for eCommerce.

There are, however, plenty of websites that aren’t quite so transactional. Web development company sites are a good example. In this case, personality matters as much as usability. Clients want to hire a team of creative individuals, so it baffles me that so many development shops fit into the same mold. They often claim to be inspired by Apple or 37signals or Facebook or Google or any number of other companies whose goal is to make a broad, uncontroversial, service.

We recently relaunched our company site, and decided to shun much of the traditional Web 2.0 design ethos. Instead, we have been investing in long-form content to inspire and inform our readers. We don’t want people to get in and get out, we want them to relax and explore a new idea. As the site grows, we want to build a whole web of our thoughts and views on software and technology. Our Creative Director, Rich Rawlyk, created original art to wrap the site in a uniquely Thirdi style. The design is meant to create mood and atmosphere, not simply push people through the door.

There are plenty of designers who disagree. They’ll take a teleological view of design and will claim that today’s status quo is perfect, and anything that differs is dated.

What do you think? Is minimalism the past, present, and future of the web, or is it just a solution to one design problem? Does the new Thirdi.com make you want to kick off your shoes and stay a while?

**Note: this isn’t to say that every site has to be styled as eclectically as ours. Check out justthebill.com. We launched it last week, and it couldn’t be more spartan.

Minimalist Bicycle

There is an unspoken rule that if you are in the web design, or software development, business that you must have an unbridled love for minimalistic web design. For. Every. Site. You. Make.

Sure: for webapps, a predictable interface and uncluttered design is important for usability. People want to get stuff done. Dead simple designs let them do that quickly. Same goes for eCommerce.

We recently relaunched Thirdi.com, and decided to shun much of the traditional Web 2.0 design ethos. Instead, we have been investing in long-form content to inspire and inform our readers. We don’t want people to get in and get out, we want them to relax and explore a new idea. We don’t want to have our entire business explained in a few glossy icons. As the site grows, we want to build a whole web of our thoughts and views on software and technology. Our Creative Director, Rich Rawlyk, created original art to wrap the site in a uniquely Thirdi style. The design is meant to create mood and atmosphere, not simply push people through the door.

There are plenty of designers who disagree. They’ll take a teleological view of design and will claim that today’s status quo is perfect, and anything that differs is dated.

What do you think? Is hyper-minimalism the past, present, and future of the web, or is it just a solution to one design problem? Does the new Thirdi.com make you want to kick off your shoes and stay a while?

**Note: this isn’t to say that every site has to be styled as eclectically as ours. Check out Just The Bill. We launched it last week, and it couldn’t be more spartan.

Have a custom web application you need built? Contact Thirdi today!

Tags: aesthetics, design, minimalism, thirdi.com, tools

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 11:44 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.