From time to time I’m buying computer hardware from company called MSY. They offer very competitive prices compared to other sellers in Sydney. Website may not look like a work of art from web site design perspective, but it does not stop them from getting into Australia’s Hitwise Top 10 Website for 2009.

Secret of website popularity, in addition to low prices, is the ability to download latest price list in PDF format, so you can compare with other sellers.

So, if you making a new website for your company, it would be best to consider what benefit will it bring to customers, rather than adding a nice “corporate” web design and meaningless promotional text.

Google search is another example of simplistic design with good usability and relevant search results. Altavista, most popular search engine in 90s, lost their visitors to Google within couple of years.

Altavista: loading pages like this over 56k (if you lucky) dialup  connection took some time

Google Search back in 90s: simple page with single image loads much faster