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All websites looking "the same" is effectively evolution at work. Many website designs and layouts have been tried, and the "best" of them have stuck around. T
by LitFan 8y ago
All websites looking "the same" is effectively evolution at work.
Many website designs and layouts have been tried, and the "best" of them have stuck around.
This can be seen in any product (cars, smartphones, food - the list goes on).
From time to time there are designs that don't look like others, and those may or may not be met with approval. If they're liked, those designs (or aspects of them) get blended with the standard.
- cnasc 8y ago> All websites looking "the same" is effectively evolution at work. Many website designs and layouts have been tried, and the "best" of them have stuck around. Yes. This is quite similar to asking why all newspapers look the same.
- dsr_ 8y agoOne of them is pink. It's quite distinctive, but has not spawned a flock of imitators in blue, yellow, etc. The USA Today was the first to use color in the masthead (and on every daily paper's front page), and that has been copied by some.
- adventured 8y agoAttribute improvements are adopted when they make broad sense (including economic). The same with color television, or improvements in book printing quality. Comprehensive macro changes usually only occur when there is a rather extreme inflection point in technology that makes a true leap possible. Something that was previously impossible not only becomes possible, but makes the experience a lot better for the end user. That's why the iPhone approach murdered the old flip phone industry so rapidly, that technology inflection made a lot of new things possible that were very beneficial / desirable to end users. It justified a large macro change, which users had to adjust to.
- amelius 8y agoI don't think this is true. I think designs get copied from websites which are successful (in all ways, not just design), because people have positive feelings with those designs, and also because using them requires a learning effort. It doesn't mean, however, that the designs themselves are best.
- LitFan 8y agoBest was in quotes because it's subjective. If the people in charge of designing a product perceive a similar product's design to be the best, then they will copy it. Similarly, if the people paying the people in charge of designing a product perceive a similar product's design to be the best, then they will pay those people to copy it.
- dredmorbius 8y agoThere are local path-dependent optima. There may be no -intrinsic reason for favouring these initially, but once established, their familiarity becomes their most valuable aspect. Chirality, side of the road, alphabet, notational conventions, AC/DC, power frequency, mains socket design, measurement standards, sugar and DNA handedness, etc., etc.
- PeterisP 8y agoFor a casual user, a design that requires extra learning effort to use it is objectively worse than a familiar design. So for a generic website which cares about first-time visitors (as opposed to a specialized tool that people use often) following established standards and familiar UX paradigms is good usability design.