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Is it because websites are converging on what boosts search rank? Or maybe there is a consolidation in the frameworks used to build web sites? Perhaps users gravitate to using sites whose layouts are "familiar"?
Yes, websites really are starting to look more similar:
Over the past few years, articles and blog posts have started to ask some version of the same question: "Why are all websites starting to look the same?"
These posts usually point out some common design elements, from large images with superimposed text, to hamburger menus, which are those three horizontal lines that, when clicked, reveal a list of page options to choose from.
My colleagues Bardia Doosti, David Crandall, Norman Su and I were studying the history of the web when we started to notice these posts cropping up. None of the authors had done any sort of empirical study, though. It was more of a hunch they had.
We decided to investigate the claim to see if there were any truth to the notion that websites are starting to look the same and, if so, explore why this has been happening. So we ran a series of data mining studies that scrutinized nearly 200,000 images across 10,000 websites.
[...] This outsize power is part a larger story of consolidation in the tech industry—one that certainly could be a cause for concern. We believe aesthetic consolidation should be critically examined as well.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by theluggage on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:24PM (5 children)
In the good old days, websites started out as unofficial projects created by enthusiasts or people close to the coal face who actually cared about the content. Now, they're firmly in the grip of the marketing department and created by people who know nothing about the content (and run by management-as-a-science types who feel threatened by people who actually know and can do things).
I wouldn't pin too much blame on 'responsive design' - it's impossible to ignore the fact that more and more people are using tablets and phones on which the traditional (dare I say, SoylentNews-style) layout doesn't work too well. The problem is the trend for dumbed-down, content-free websites that don't tell you anything about anything (Obligatory XKCD [xkcd.com]).
I think the golden rule that gets ignored is "a website is not an advertising hoarding or a TV ad" - those things are primarily designed to inject the brand name into the viewers subconscious and need to be big, bold and simple. If a user goes to a website (they've made the effort to type a URL, follow a link or Google something) then they already know you exist and want to know the details. Of course, if the website creator doesn't know or understand the details themselves, we have a problem.
Of course, the more mundane reason is that everybody is now using off-the-peg content management systems like Wordpress coupled with off-the-peg 'themes'.
Then there's the cynical explanation that CSS/HTML5 only just got to the stage where the "traditional" Soylent-style layout is easy to achieve without getting told off by semantic web purists for abusing tables so of course we need something more arcane... On the bright side, looks like Internet Explorer has finally been beaten back to the dark crypts of the corporate intranet where all but a few cursed souls can ignore it.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Thursday May 14 2020, @01:29PM (4 children)
This. So much this. I can't even begin to count the number of times I have gone searching for information about a product or company or product or something only to get some aweful looking web site filled with large scrolling carousel images filled with fake happy people, some buzzword filled mission statment that sounds like it was produced by a random bullshit generator, and absolutly zip else. Then any actual discussion or coments about such company or product are all locked away on Tweeter or Facefook, that usually don't turn up in searches anyway. All while I have to worry about the almighty google de-ranking my own tiny old personal site because it is mostly just plain text.
While I am at it, is it REALLY too much to ask for web site monkeys to check their site running in a non-fullscren window? I have encountered a LOT of sites lately that totally break when running in a reasonably sized window or displaying on less than 9000-inch screen.
Fuck them all with a big wooden splintery iPhone shaped dick.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Thursday May 14 2020, @04:00PM (3 children)
Honestly, the reason SoylentNews is balls on mobile is that no one has gone through to write a new CSS or HTML layout to fix it which we could load via viewport. Multi-column website design appears to be pretty much dead and gone on most of the Internet. Granted, at least SN doesn't lag.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Thursday May 14 2020, @04:12PM (1 child)
Would you accept a PR? I feel like one of the few souls who actually understands the nuts and bolts of responsive design well enough to hack it into a legacy codebase like SN without bringing in some trendy framework. I just haven't made any PRs because whenever it comes up, it sounds like most everyone is opposed to the idea.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Thursday May 14 2020, @05:26PM
We've had a long standing offer to merge any such PR. The problem is no one has managed to do so for SN because our lack of JavaScript. rehash (the underlying code) has a fairly extensive templating engine and if you want to replace all the HTML with something better fit for mobile, that's entirely possible. Drop by on IRC in #dev if you want to stare into the abyss. The most important thing to know is almost all the HTML rendering is ontop of Template::Toolkit.
We also put the abyss on github for your viewing pleasure: https://github.com/soylentnews/rehash [github.com]
Still always moving
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2020, @08:09PM
Is it too much to ask mobile users to just tilt the phone to horizontal and forget about their infinite scroll addiction?