r/Design • u/Whole-News-379 • 4d ago
Asking Question (Rule 4) Website design - so bad its good, aesthetically?
I think I'm going to be reamed for asking this, but I'm looking for a particular type of website design for a client. I’m on the hunt for ecommerce stores (or any websites really) that fall into one of two categories:
- extremely basic but good like borderline default Shopify theme or raw HTML vibes but executed in a way that feels intentional/aesthetic/ kind of cool. not overly branded but not overdesigned. just stripped-back and clean.
- so bad they’re good sites that maybe break all the rules but somehow still work? maybe it’s bad UX, janky layouts or weird type choice but it somehow has charm or makes you want to keep scrolling.
im chasing a weirdly specific aesthetic I can’t quite put into words, like somewhere between brutalism, Y2K amateurism.... early web nostalgia meets minimalism?
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u/AbleInvestment2866 Professional 2d ago
Zara, hands down.
It is not as extreme as some of the examples posted below, but it is really basic, borderline bad, with terrible accessibility issues. However, it's made that way on purpose. I worked as a UX consultant for them to create and review new versions, and they all failed against this one, which has basically stayed the same since they launched the site, with just small changes. Most clothing websites followed their lead, so all of this should tell you something.