Website Layouts I’ve Seen Too Much Of

I do a lot of surfing around the web, following tweeted links to various websites and blogs masquerading as websites and what I seem to be seeing more and more of is WordPress-based sites. Now I know WordPress has gotten infinitely more popular in even the last year and I use it myself and for many of our clients, but does no one think outside of the box anymore? Let me illustrate …

So basically, there’s a whole lot of ads – often, so many that it seems the website owner is pushing all the ads more than they are their own company or the content of the pages. My favorite thing is all the design sites that are patterned after this. Design sites I would expect a little more out of. Granted, our new blog will be loosely based off a similar layout, but at least we came through and did our own code and added our own graphics.

There’s also a 2nd variety of layout going on that seems to be getting very overdone these days ….

It could very well be the number of ads that rubs me the wrong way – especially when I visit a design blog and there’s a big ad about “design your Flash website for free!” on there. Do they not check what ads are showing up? Do they not care? You would think a so-called designer (or even a site that is posting articles for designers, by designers) would have more respect for the industry then blasting other designers with the latest way for people to D.I.Y. instead of hiring a professional. I guess there are “professionals” out there who are using these services though and passing them off to their clients as custom design as well. That’s another whole topic.

Let me get back to talking about layouts …

Everything – even a really creative site that doesn’t seem like it – is based off “boxes” or a grid pattern. The way it’s compartmentalized (and coded) is usually what creates the visual layout. The thing is, after seeing so many of these sites with the same placement of elements, they all start to look alike to me. Herein lies the problem I see: that may be happening to other people too. The flip side someone might want to argue is that viewers get used to a layout and then become familiar with it. The usability becomes second nature if every site they view is based off the same layout. Of course this is not my view point and although I’m all about usability and making it easier on the viewer to navigate through a site and find what they need, I do want to challenge them visually and I do want to make a great first impression. To me, it takes something a little more unique to make that first impression a lasting one.

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