If you look at some of the newer sites, they're generally prettier than the original trilogy sites. Still have the same basic design and still all about the text of questions and answers.

A few examples: - http://ux.stackexchange.com/ - http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/ - http://scifi.stackexchange.com/ - http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/ - http://tex.stackexchange.com/