Could someone explain why most recent websites look as if the members of the target audience are five-year old children? This is not a troll - I'm honestly wondering if anyone actually likes such a "design".
Because childrens' toys are highly functional. You've got building blocks with letters on them. They do exactly 1 thing, and they do that 1 thing very, very, very well.
Or maybe you have a board with some buttons on it. The one with a picture of a cow makes a cow noise. The pig makes a pig noise, etc.
Turns out this is also really good design practice. For a long time, when the web was new, having lots of "neat stuff" meant that you knew how to make neat stuff, which meant that you were "professional".
As this "neat stuff" became more accessible, it started having the opposite affect.
The transition you've seen happen in web is the same one that you saw happen in print. Things start off "fancy", but as "fancy" becomes easily attainable, it starts to look cheap.
Can you explain why you think the design targets "five-year old children"? All you did was make a reductive, flippant accusation without backing it up at all.
I don't think it really needs explanation - using the term "fisher price style" is quite a common way of describing that style.
For example:
Each Fisher Price style button leading through to a small nugget of information that users can consume very quickly and move on or should we continue designing pages that are more traditional in their layout (more text+images)?
Or maybe you have a board with some buttons on it. The one with a picture of a cow makes a cow noise. The pig makes a pig noise, etc.
Turns out this is also really good design practice. For a long time, when the web was new, having lots of "neat stuff" meant that you knew how to make neat stuff, which meant that you were "professional".
As this "neat stuff" became more accessible, it started having the opposite affect.
The transition you've seen happen in web is the same one that you saw happen in print. Things start off "fancy", but as "fancy" becomes easily attainable, it starts to look cheap.
You may be interested in this article: http://lesswrong.com/lw/154/why_real_men_wear_pink/
"Why Real Men Wear Pink"