50 REPETITIVE & ANNOYING Website Intros Examined


You know those large pieces of text on seemingly every designers homepage? Checkout an infographic that tears them down.



 
  • Print this article!
  • E-mail this story to a friend!
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • TwitThis

On many web portfolio sites, especially in the field of design the first thing that you will notice is an introductory text consisting of a few words about the company or the designer behind the site. The second thing you will notices is how they are all the same and all cliche by now. They do nothing to further the brand and they are often tremendous wastes of space.

Happy Cog may have been one of the first sites to use them, a while back, but since then they’ve become as trendy as brightly colored star-bursts and insane gradients.

Webdesigner Depot put out a post the other day called “50 Inspirational Website Introductions.” While there are 50 of them, they are all less than inspirational. In fact they are a perfect collection of homogeneous design decisions that lead to none-point-zero memorability.

I collected the words and phrases from each of the 50 “intros” and created this infographic with the data.

43in1

Comments on This Article - 23 Skip To Comment Form
  1. On August 21st, 2009 at 3:10 pm Shane S Said:

    Wow Bryan

    Amazing post – never seen anything like it anywhere.
    Took guts and chutzpah.

    Points well taken. Could also apply to more than website designers.

    If designers can’t come up with original words, how can clients trust they will come up with original designs?

    Your statistical breakdowns show me you took a long time to present your ideas in a coherent fashion.

    Nice going.
    _S

  2. On August 21st, 2009 at 3:13 pm Bryan Said:

    Thanks Shane, appreciate it.

    I love your point about this concept translating to original designs aw well.

    And you’re right that this did take a good while. Glad you enjoy it!

    Thanks for reading,

    Bryan

  3. On August 30th, 2009 at 11:34 am Daniel Millbank Said:

    Originality has always been difficult to find, but easy to recognize.

    I couldn’t agree with you more. Well researched and presented.

    Cheers.

  4. On September 1st, 2009 at 10:51 am Dave Sparks Said:

    Brilliant, this is something that is everywhere now and whilst at first it was a quirky personal approach it’s been very over done.

  5. On September 1st, 2009 at 2:15 pm Jelani Harris Said:

    Thanks for giving stats on the most overused intros on personal websites. I’ll make a mental note to avoid any of those kind of introductions when I redesign my website.

  6. On September 1st, 2009 at 2:22 pm Joseph Kelly Said:

    Nice! Work that data!

  7. On September 1st, 2009 at 8:56 pm Brian Said:

    Good timing — I was just explaining to my wife how sick I was of the whole “Hi, I’m so-and-so and I make Websites” — especially when combined with the cute cartoon character. The single biggest cliche on the Web right now.

  8. On September 20th, 2009 at 9:48 am 10 Revealing Infographics about the Web Said:

    [...] Repetitive Website Intros Examined exposes how the design industry tends to stick to prevailing trends by presenting data on overused [...]

  9. On September 20th, 2009 at 12:56 pm 10 Revealing Infographics About The Web « TechWorthy Said:

    [...] Repetitive Website Intros Examined exposes how the design industry tends to stick to prevailing trends by presenting data on overused [...]

  10. On September 21st, 2009 at 7:33 pm 10 Revealing Infographics about the Web | The Way I Go Said:

    [...] 8. Repetitive Website Intros Examined exposes how the design industry tends to stick to prevailing trends by presenting data on overused keywords, readability and other tidbits of incriminating numbers in website introductions based on the sites on this article. [...]

  11. On September 21st, 2009 at 10:48 pm 10 Revealing Infographics about the Web - Partytow Said:

    [...] Repetitive Website Intros Examined exposes how the design industry tends to stick to prevailing trends by presenting data on overused [...]

  12. On September 22nd, 2009 at 3:58 pm Sandra Said:

    Intereting article (and timely as I write the intro for our site redesign!). Why anyone would think that “I am…” is unique is anyone’s guess and “Hello” is nearly as bad as “Welcome”. But isn’t there a good reason for using words such as “web” and “design” if that’s what you do?. These are words that are used very frequently as search terms and somewhat understood by the general population. There is a danger that designers get too creative and in an effort to be unique and innovative start using terms that are so obscure that no one understands what they do.

  13. On September 22nd, 2009 at 6:51 pm Bryan Said:

    @ Sandra I appreciate your thought on this. I think you’re right about some designers going too far to be ultimately creative. I don’t think that the use of web and design is all that bad on these sites. It’s more the concept of this big intro text and the generic structure of them. If you’re a web designer, people should know! Thanks for reading.

  14. On September 22nd, 2009 at 6:51 pm Bryan Said:

    @ Sandra I appreciate your thought on this. I think you’re right about some designers going too far to be ultimately creative. I don’t think that the use of web and design is all that bad on these sites. It’s more the concept of this big intro text and the generic structure of them. If you’re a web designer, people should know! Thanks for reading.

  15. On September 26th, 2009 at 10:59 am 10 Revealing Infographics about the Web « BeginnerPC : Tips , Tricks & Tutorials Said:

    [...] Repetitive Website Intros Examined exposes how the design industry tends to stick to prevailing trends by presenting data on overused [...]

  16. On October 5th, 2009 at 9:04 pm Joseph Rooks Said:

    Carsonified.com has a great thing going on with using their whole site as an introduction to their brand and their entire team. I recommend checking it out, it’s one of the coolest business web sites I’ve seen in a long time!

  17. On October 15th, 2009 at 11:31 pm 13 Interesting Infographics for Web Workers | Web Design Ledger Said:

    [...] 50 REPETITIVE & ANNOYING Website Intros Examined [...]

  18. On October 16th, 2009 at 3:47 am Kumo Said:

    Humm, I don’t agree with this post…
    Yeah sure, the words “hello I’m a…” are overused, but when I arrive on a website I like to know what is it.
    If I want to know more, I click on the “about” page, but I love to know the purpose of the site, company or person.
    “I’m a graphic designer”, “This software provides you XXX”, “”A site about XXX”, it takes 2 lines but is reaaaaally pleasant.

    For me, an introduction like Chris Spooner’s is not really original but verry usefull “Hello I’m Chris Spooner. I design stuff”.

  19. On October 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm 13 infografías destacadas sobre Internet para inspirarte - elWebmaster.com Said:

    [...] [...]

  20. On October 19th, 2009 at 4:50 pm Kerri Said:

    I pretty much agree with Kumo.

    These things might not be original or terribly creative, but conventions like these, in design, structure and lexicon, lead to better usability. And I’d take usability over “creative originality” on the web in the majority of cases.

  21. On November 11th, 2009 at 8:16 am » 10 Revealing Infographics about the Web Said:

    [...] 8. Repetitive Website Intros Examined exposes how the design industry tends to stick to prevailing trends by presenting data on overused keywords, readability and other tidbits of incriminating numbers in website introductions based on the sites on this article. [...]

  22. On December 3rd, 2009 at 10:04 am Drumbeat: visualizing the (open) web « commonspace Said:

    [...] to propose ideas for visualizing the web. These could be literal and insightful. Or playful and thought provoking. The only constraint: use real (public and anonymous) data to tell a story about how it the [...]

  23. On January 4th, 2010 at 6:30 am Benjamin D.C. Said:

    I pretty much agree with you Bryan. However you take a 2-year old website as an example. This type of introduction wasn’t that common then…

 the best

follow me on twitter rss feed best of best of best of best of best of best of

 categories


 resources

something to say?
Add A Comment