The debate over ugly websites verses pretty websites continues.

As a web publisher, this is what you need to know:

-Many successful “ugly” sites are actually designed a lot better than pretty sites. How so? Designers often focus on completely unimportant elements. Click the “pretty” link above, the focus of that design is the flower. As an art form that site looks great, as a functional blog its just silly.

-Have you ever used a tool that looked ugly as sin but worked great? This is like comparing an ugly battle-ready sword to a ornamental piece hanging on the wall. Which one will you pick?

All this really boils down to is usability. If your websites looks good and work perfectly, you should do just fine.

Here are some things I recommend avoiding specifically. These rules should more or less be universal, from content publishers, to social networks, to e-commerce sites.

-lightly contrasted text. ie: light grey text on a blue background. I hate to point fingers, but I always have to turn CSS stylesheets off when reading Jay’s blog.

-tiny pictures. You shouldn’t have to strain your eyes to figure out what that thumbnail is a picture of.

-highly contrasted colors in the wrong place. Use contrast to draw attention toward a certain action — ads, e-mail signups, RSS subscriptions, your logo for branding (thats what I do.) Don’t use it to draw attention to the gradients seperating every page element or a gigantic flower on the top of your page.

I think this topic calls for a free e-book. My art background goes back a whole lot further than my commercial publishing background so this shouldn’t be too hard. I make no promises yet, but I’ll be thinking about it.