Internet Design, circa 1996

[mr.Curmudgeon]

Man. Did it really look awful.   
http://www.msu.edu/~karjalae/internet96.htm?hoho

[patrickl]

They might have looked bad, but at least they were easy to navigate. I tried the current McDonalds site and had to go through a dozen screens to finally get some freaky flash page with pictograms that only show their meaning when you hover over them. These days it seems to be more of form over function than anything else.

[danny_galaga]

this is all you need to know about mcdonalds (",)

[TOK]

No popups, no frames, no "live" commercials to sit through, no stupid Flash games/ad's.
I'd take it back that way in a minute. 

[mr.Curmudgeon]

As a designer...I found myself cringing.
As a designer who prizes functionality as much as form...I find myself agreeing with you guys.   

I think websites can be "well-designed" in an aesthetic sense, and still remain simple, as far as UI goes.
I think Google is the perfect example of exactly how to do that.

[mr.Curmudgeon]

Well, I think we're comparing apples to oranges. A McDonald's website was never going to be the pinnacle of graphic design.

[patrickl]

I also tried the (dutch) Coca-Cola site and it's utterly useless. All they do is show that daft "Happyness Factory movie". At least the McDonalds site contains some information that you can find after you search long enough.

The Lego site looks pretty good.

[ChadTower]

Well, I think we're comparing apples to oranges. A McDonald's website was never going to be the pinnacle of graphic design.

And really, McDonalds' site is all about flash over substance anyway.  Who really goes to McDonalds.com looking for functionality?  You aren't going to order food there.  People who are that interested in McDonalds aren't looking up nutrition info.  I don't see a path to a corporate portal for vendors or employees.

[mr.Curmudgeon]

Unfortunately, even in 2008, most brick and mortar companies still view their web presence as little more than glorified brochure-ware. It's one of the reasons I moved back to print design for a few years before moving out of the industry entirely.

[ChadTower]

Unfortunately, even in 2008, most brick and mortar companies still view their web presence as little more than glorified brochure-ware. It's one of the reasons I moved back to print design for a few years before moving out of the industry entirely.

Depends on the industry... trust me, retail chains have enough WAN backbone now that they'd completely fall apart if they had to go back to human methods.  It would probably happen in 48 hours, too.  The level of web leverage getting put into place now is astounding.  There is not a lot of front end design to it - from that point of view it's pretty basic.  It is all function over form.

Sadly this often means people like me have to live portions of their lives as slaves to corporate app SLA timeframes.  Drives me nuts sometimes.

[Ed_McCarron]

Unfortunately, even in 2008, most brick and mortar companies still view their web presence as little more than glorified brochure-ware. It's one of the reasons I moved back to print design for a few years before moving out of the industry entirely.

Was it worth it?  Are the kangaroos happier now?

[mr.Curmudgeon]

I enjoyed it, at times. And I made good money. But it was mostly frustrating as I found that the real interesting and fresh designs always found their way to the bottom of the pile, while some clueless CEO screamed for a bigger logo and more sparkly things. Over the years I've felt the creativity being sucked out of me...no amount of money is worth that.

Now, I know designers can get carried away, but 9 out of 10 times when you see that horribly oppressive website design with the asinine UI, it's often the brain-child of the executives and/or the marketing department.

Trust me, the Kangaroo knows what I'm talking about.

Anyhow, I enjoy doing design much more now that I'm doing it for myself and for fun (for others).

[patrickl]

Well I guess it works both ways. I have worked with several "designers" (as in creative types) and they drive me insane with their drivel about colors and moods or how the whole site should be designed at a 45 degree angle because no one has done that yet. YES THERE IS A BLOODY GOOD REASON WHY PEOPLE DON'T DO THAT. Sorry, makes my blood boil when I think babout that again.

[ChadTower]

I've had some perfectly good apps totally jacked up when an executive logged in and said something like "there should be a talking monkey on a toilet in the corner - the vendors will relate to that rather than a well organized help reference".