I've got a secret. I kind of like ugly design. Shockingly (or not), I don't seem to be the only person in the design community who harbors this secret. In fact, a few months ago, Design Observer posted an article on How To Be Ugly. It was a controversial article that included 84 comments with varied responses.
You may laugh, but there is a definite difference between bad and ugly design. Bad design typically means the designer failed. Ugly design is intentional.
I've collected a few ugly sites that I love and want to hear feedback. Do you secretly love ugly too?
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Base Design Let's start off with an easy one. Base doesn't classify as completely ugly. The structure and visual impact of the site is great but they've got a great start on ugly with the navigation.
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Toormix I'm a sucker for yellow and black, so combine a little ugly with those colors and Toormix has me swooning. The hovers and navigation interaction on this site are genius.
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Irregular Choice I gasped when I first saw this site, and it wasn't just because of these shoes. Irregular Choice, a fairly high-end online store, took ugly to an entirely new level. Can you imagine trying to get something like this approved at Nine West? A totally different target market, but I digress.
