I was slightly amused at the comparison Gerry McGovern made in his article, “The Best Websites are Useful and Ugly” about the Grand Canyon and how it would be inaccessible to a person who decides to live there. The Canyon is definitely a beautiful place to look at, and people can definitely spends hours just staring at the scenery all day if they wanted but they probably wont. Users comes to your website for a purpose and that is to use it.
The author makes a good point in stating that fact and giving examples to back them up. Websites don’t have to look fancy as you can see from websites considered to be “ugly” such as Google, YouTube, or Craigslist. While I do agree with McGovern’s point about building websites that don’t necessarily have to look gorgeous (they just have to be user friendly and accessible), I also believe there are certainly some sites out there that can be both well-designed and functional at the same time. I will admit that at a time, I was one of those folks who would design a website with small text and a lighter font color to suite the layout design of my website. It may appear cute but I have since grown out of it. It is always a plus if you can make a site look the way you want and also have it function well, though, a site’s look should always come second after usability.
