If you have been wandering around on my web site here, you probably have a pretty good feeling for where my biases lie on this subject. You'll notice that the content is heavily text-based, with occasional graphics used mainly for effect ot for some simple formatting. I make an effort to ensure that my pages are readable, but beyond that, the formatting and presentation takes a back seat to the words and the ideas that I am trying to convey.
I have heard a lot from professional and semi-professional web designers about the importance of so-called "eye-candy", that is that people accessing a web site should be greeted with a constantly changing array of whizz-bang features. Now, I must admit that when I first access a web site, I will often be impressed by this eye candy, but very shortly after that. I start to wonder what else the site has to offer. The suggestion is made that the changing eye candy encourages people to make return visits - to check the latest and greatest improvements. The reality is, though, that people only make return visit in order to try and find something they saw before. Changing the look and feel of the site only hinders that process, rather than encouraging it.
I agree that web sites, especially commercial ones, cannot afford to remain completely static. Within a very short period of time, they begin to look very dated. The question then is whether or not a dated site can continue to appeal to an audience, and for mine the answer to that question is an emphatic yes. There is a caveat to that statement, however, which is that a site will continue to appeal to the same people who first saw it. This discounts the importance of the constant influx of newbie users, who appear on the net with the latest and greatest browsers, and limitless expectations. To them, a dated site will look particularly unattractive - not at all what they were promised from the web.
I would like to think that even for these newbie users, however, it will be the utility of a site that
timnfromoz
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