I think what this guy ment was something completely different ...
I dunno the guy, but indeed more and more the MEDIUM becomes the MESSAGE instead of the CONTENT.
May I add my 2cc to it ...
It's a nice way to put it and in a way it's correct.
You will never get a succesfull website if you only have to offer cool color schemes and nice graphics ... so it's a correct statement to start from ... (and a lot of people start with the colors and graphics and hope the content and success will come) ...
However after you have desided on what your website (whether it's bizz or private use) will be focused on and what your target audience will be, you will have to reconsider what GUI you are going to use and what will benifit most to your successtory ...
Based on your target and your plan you will go for a GUI that will fullfill your needs ... and there colors and graphics do come into play and become an essential part of your way of communicating ... you will choose the best possible tools to get your message // content delivered.
If this means NO graphics and NO fancy color scheme, than you still use colors and graphics.
The old way of HTML pages (grey background, black text in Times New Roman with blue underlined links) is also a color scheme (and even not such a bad one at that point in time).
So again ... there are so many issues to resolve once you have your idea started that indeed Colors and Site Graphics are not that important for a succesfull website, however if you choose wrong here they become very important / annoying and will ruin your successtory .
So if you apply a standard solution in color scheme and graphics and don't really pay that much attention to it you might loose on "great site awards" but if the content and backend is great and the GUI is correct but not superb you have a great way to start and grow ... if the only thing that is great and fancy is your colors and graphics and the GUI aspect is to difficult and you don't provide good content and information you will definitly end up in a dead end street ...
So if the INFO is the MESSAGE and you know how to deliver your MESSAGE, your colors and graphics will be OK and you will be heard ... if it's only the MEDIUM that is the MESSAGE ... well
My 2cc
Greetz
Knuff
