>
>
>(As a side note, it's interesting how website layout has sort of
>stabilized. An awful lot of sites have very similar layouts, and not
>just in the Open Source community. Reminds me of how automobile cockpit
>layout has stabilized over the decades.)
>
>
I personally think this is sad. There is no reason a Slash or PHPNuke
(or PostNuke; I'd forgotten about PostNuke) site should like like a
Slashdot knockoff. Reality = a whole lot of people seem to have a
thought process that goes like, "Slashdot is successful, so if I make my
site look like Slashdot it too will be successful." This is obviously no
more true in Web site design than it is in music, where bands that
"cover" others' work rarely make it beyond the local bar no matter how
well they play.
There are many, many things that can be done to make a Web site unique
and interesting without exotic technology or plugins, but not enough
people are trying to produce truly original, striking work on the WWW.
UF professor Mindy Mcadam's http://mindy.mcadams.com is an example of an
interesting-looking site made with nothing but simple HTML and a little
javascript. http://plastic.com is a Slash site that looks nothing like
Slashdot.
More people need to realize that highly successful sites tend to be
originals rather than copies, just as highly successful musicians
perform original works, not copies.
I could write a whole book about this.
Wait! I did.
It's called "The Habits of Highly Successful Internet Companies" and
it'll be out from Financial Times Press in September.
(BuildProfitsOnline.com will be the book's companion Web site.)
- Robin
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