Embracing Brutalist Web Design: A Bold Approach to User Experience
Abi Hough explores the concept of brutalist web design, drawing inspiration from the architectural movement known for its raw, unadorned aesthetics. In the digital realm, this translates to websites that prioritize function over form, often featuring simple coding, basic fonts like Courier or Arial, limited color palettes, raw imagery, straightforward language, and minimalistic layouts.
Summary
Key Insights:
Brutalist design serves as a counter-movement to the homogenized, template-driven websites prevalent today. By breaking away from conventional design norms, it offers a unique user experience that can make a website stand out.
However, Abi cautions that while brutalism can offer benefits like reduced maintenance and faster load times, it isn’t suitable for every brand. She suggests integrating elements of brutalism—such as clarity, simplicity, and authenticity—into existing designs to enhance user engagement without compromising brand identity.
Notably, websites like Craigslist and The Drudge Report exemplify successful implementations of brutalist principles, achieving significant revenue with minimalistic designs.
In summary, incorporating aspects of brutalist web design can provide a fresh perspective, encouraging designers to focus on essential user needs and functionality.
About The Author: Abi Hough
Founder UU3 / WeAreCorpus
Abi Hough is the founder of UU3 and WeAreCorpus. Through UU3, she works across UX research, optimisation, audits and digital strategy. Through Corpus, she explores the upstream web: the trust, proof, signals and contradictions that shape how humans and machines understand organisations before anyone reaches a website.
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