Ugly is beautiful and successful

I thought you had to be appealling to be successful. we have been conditionned by the fashion industry to think that way. But apparently this not (always) true and i will prove it here with a few online and offline examples

Some of the ugliest websites are some of the most used/visited. Craiglist, MySpace in France SkyBlogs and Tf1. Check screenshots below. But this could apply to websites that are not specially ugly but that have no real design intention (think Google)

 

In the Offline industry i have been stuck by the success of Crocs, this australian brand of casual shoes. They are SO ugly i can t even begin to see myself with them. But here we go, they grow quite nicely and have international presence in less than 2 years..

 

So why does it work? Because people are much less demanding than what we think on the envelop but really demanding on the inside. They want functionnality first (content, features/ comfort, long lasting, …) and are ready to forget about the nice design. Craiglist is offering the best free network for local classified (for now), Tf1 the best content information, Skyblog/MySpace the basic necessary features to edit a blog and have access to a big community. Crocs offer comfortable and very functionnal casual light shoes (but their website is an absolute beauty and they have also some other less known very nice products).

Conclusions:

• making pretty is not a necessity for success.
• what matters is the meat not the packaging meaning the functional side of a product/service
• but if you can also match the content with a nice packaging then you have a point

technorati tags: marketing success design myspace tf1 skyblog craiglist crocs shoes

Comments

[Benoit]

And flickr is beautiful (although the interface is very simple). Of course what is inside is more important than design but beauty is attractive, don't you think? An ipod is a nice product and it helps.

[Ouriel Ohayon]

Of course benoit, If on top of basic good functionnality the design is there then it s even better, as i mentionned at the end of my post. But we over estimate the need for appearance and should focus on providing a good service. For example Skype is a great product but the design is not competing with Yahoo Messenger. But if it was nicer then great! Ipod is the ultimate combination of design and functionnality so it stands out of the crowd

[MD]

You're ignoring something critical. People accept crappy interfaces that are free. When you pay for something it's a completely different hurdle. You can't compare iPods and craig's list. Would you pay $300 for the "craig's list" of iPods?? Or would you pay $20/month for craig's list? $1/month?

Then you're going to tell me that people happily pay for craig's list job postings. That's just companies trying to reach a large audience...not the same thing as paying for access.

[Yosef]

I have noticed the same things in the frum world. It seems that the two most popular sites onlysimchas.com and shmais.com Have the worst possible designs, but people eat it up. It seems to me that it is also about community. They are so hard to build, but once you have it, then it doesn't matter what you look like.

[Benoit]

It reminds me a post on business2blog about "how MySpace beat Friendster". Their answer is that you have to let people express themsleves the way they are, even if you don't like what they are. So maybe, when you care too much about the design you don't care enough about your users...

[Uri L.]

Have to agree on the Crocs shoes - just got a pair and they are really comfortable and sort of a cross-walking model for home/outside wear. Their quirky form and design just add to the "coolness" ranking.
About the trendy side - they've been gracefully adopted by many medics at hospitals.

[Roscom]

new designs for crocs sandals
i made special machine fot that purpose and , all the designs are protected under applicable copyrights worldwide

[Roscom]

hi you guys.
i think you will enjoy this site

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roscom/

[Carmit Zfardea]

In Italy I think I'm the only one with my crocs: very confortable for my job in the hospital

[shoe stretchers]

If you were going to buy a golf club, you wouldn't walk into a store and buy the first one you see, would you? Of course not; especially if you want to improve your golf game! You'll want to hold the club, take some practice swings, hit some balls if the store has a practice spot, and look at the price, of course. If you are considering buying running shoes, you need to go through a similar process and take the time to find the perfect shoe.