> Developers like simple sites like Hacker News. Nobody else does. People like Google. I'm convinced that users don't care for most "design" and "clever layou

> Developers like simple sites like Hacker News. Nobody else does. People like Google. I'm convinced that users don't care for most "design" and "clever layout". Site owners do, but users don't. Which is understandable, you want your site to stand out so you make it special. Users usually don't want special, they don't want to think, they don't want to figure out where they need to hover for functionality to reveal itself etc. I do believe that users would be much happier if layout/design possibilities would be much more restricted, like they are on mobile, because there's no constant re-learning there. The problem is that designers and developers need to get site owners on board, so they are selling to site owners.