rcjordan - 6:55 pm on Dec 30, 2000 (gmt 0)

>I discovered that black and white often gets better results than the identical content in color

>My neato layout that allowed you to find exactly what you wanted in a hurry was less useful than a layout everyone already understood

I'm going to add one other comment, then try to tie the three together
No one uses all the whistles and bells on a VCR, they just jam in the tape and hit 'Play.'

Now we're really going to make the haut design types scream....

I believe we're looking at a phenom that comes with a maturing web user -by 'maturing,' I mean more total time logged at the browser. Several years ago, I made a point of tracing the evolution of a few people as they moved to the web. In every case, they started out favoring "rich" sites and usually equated rich graphics and sophisticated design with content authority. As they were online more and more, they morphed 180 degrees from their original preferences and became "black & white" users. The heaviest users are now aggressive in their browser habits when it comes to cutting to the chase (and reducing time), surfing with graphics off, javascript off, speakers off. Some strip frames out of framesets and bookmark them, use sites that scrape screens (like SEW does with Nando -love it!), or go for simple Mosiac-era text directories.

The user is becoming jaded, they have also developed a skillset for reading 'standard' websites. Like the QWERTY keyboard, some site designs may be technically better or more efficient, but the user doesn't want to take time to re-learn anything.

BTW, I do not believe that it's a coincidence that one of the most common complaints now being leveled at NS6 is the inclusion of "skins" at a cost of performance.