Do academics look down on well-designed academic websites?

Rationally, I should not be concerned about building a well-designed academic website for myself. But academic websites are consistently so visually spare and poorly designed that I would feel like a peacock designing the site in any way. I don't mean anything crazy, maybe a web font or a non-#0000ff link.

I realize this is broad, but I'd be curious if others feel this stigma of trying too hard in this area—same probably applies to clothing—and how they approach it.

Answer

Academia is full of people who are deeply passionate about their work but sadly are less than deeply passionate about making an effort to communicate effectively about their work to the rest of the world. That is a bad thing, not a good thing. That is why we see poorly written papers, poorly prepared talks, and why we see poorly designed (or nonexistent) personal websites. Moreover, many academics lack the technical skills and design sense needed to create a good website. Again, that is a bad thing (well, the sky won't collapse because of it, but you know what I mean).

Thus, I think the premise of your question falls into a logical trap of thinking that because something is the norm, it is good. That simply isn't the case. If you know how to build a really good website, and care sufficiently about making your work known and understood by others to spend the time doing it, by all means -- do it (and, of course, if you know how to write really good papers and give really good presentations, do that as well!). Be a leader rather than a follower, and show people the way to improving this somewhat pathetic aspect of academia. It will be a great investment of your time and a good way to set yourself apart from your (perhaps equally talented but less web-savvy) peers, as long as you don't go overboard and spend so much time on the website that it will seriously impact your research productivity.

For what it's worth, I'm not here to promote my own work so I won't include a link, but Google will show you that I at least try to practice what I preach.

Edit: To clarify, as far as the OP's literal question is concerned: no, academics generally do not look down on well-designed academic websites. As I explained above, in my humble opinion you have everything to gain and virtually nothing to lose by putting in a reasonable amount of work to build a clean, nice-looking website that effectively communicates to the world what you and your work are about. Moreover, by doing so you will be serving as a good role model for others and advancing the culture of academic dissemination of knowledge. At least one academic (yours truly) definitely approves of that.