Website design

[smeacs]

There seems to be a bit of IT banter on this forum ( usually having a dig at the Qantas website) but often there is some know how. My question is why are websites progressing down this pattern of big banners that show little information and generally require a large screen to be utilised and lots of scrolling. For example

https://www.commbank.com.au/
https://www.commsec.com.au/
Credit Cards - Compare Low Fee and Low Rate Credit Cards - NAB slightly better
Tim Keller - City to City Conference - March 2014 City to City really bad
The Astor Hotel another really bad example
ROB ROY HOTEL | 106 Halifax Street, Adelaide | (08) 8223 5391 slightly more informative but still the top of the page has a huge banner
Mother Vine - Wine Bar in Adelaide

So you get the idea , compared to what I think is better design.

GraysOnline Australia - Online Retail & Auctions
Guardian Australia: latest news, comment, reviews and sport | The Guardian
Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Aviation News | Aviation Industry & Airline Statistics | flightglobal.com
Bedroom Furniture - Beds, Mattresses & Inspiration - IKEA

I assume someone has put heaps of thought in to this does anyone have a clue why?

 

[serfty]

It's so those thick fingered users with tablet devices can more easily navigate the web sites.

I agree with you that it's a poor thing and make sites painful to navigate using more efficient pointing devices.

 

[samh004]

As serfty points out, it'd to do with touch screened devices and making websites accessible to them.