Craigslist has a great minimalist interface. There's a lot of ways it could go wrong, and it avoids a great majority of them. That said, I don't think a lot of development has gone into actually considering their use cases and developing workflows that prefer them.
Obviously, it's still a very useful site regardless, but I would not call it a well designed site.
Exactly. Craigslist work because it doesn't use huge images, scrolly this, flashy that. It works because it uses links as they were meant to be used. It works because it is terribly easy to navigate.
If a "proper designer" got hold of it, they'd ruin it.
I find it really laughable that companies think you can separate these things. I realize that is the popular opinion but it what has gotten us into this situation in the first place. We have all these "pretty" sites that are unusable. It's an increasingly common skillset and you might as well get a pragmatic person to handle both.
Craigslist has a great minimalist interface. There's a lot of ways it could go wrong, and it avoids a great majority of them. That said, I don't think a lot of development has gone into actually considering their use cases and developing workflows that prefer them.
Obviously, it's still a very useful site regardless, but I would not call it a well designed site.