Are pre-built websites the end of web design?

It is not uncommon for you meet someonewhich is connected to the The ups and downs of web design is not so familiar and tells you: "I can do the same as you, with Squarespace„.

You may react to this with disgust or anger.

I mean, it's not surprising. The emergence of ready-made drag-and-drop Website creation platforms made the creation of websites so much easierespecially because little to no programming is required. And as someone whose bread and butter is designing websites, one cannot help but feel pity.

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Personally, you wouldn't want your job to be replaced by a simpler way of doing things, similar to how horses were replaced by cars at that time.

Frameworks and CMS are also becoming increasingly popular. You have WordPress, Blogger, Drupal. You have Foundation, Bootstrapand Skeleton. You have SquareSpace, Wix and Weebly.

There are so much competitionand all these services are usually aimed at occasional customers, who are offered the opportunity to simply subscribe instead of looking for web designers.

The points I have listed so far certainly make you think: "OMG! These pre-built websites are the death of web design. The end is near!„

Frameworks and CMS are also becoming increasingly popular. You have WordPress, Blogger, Drupal. You have Foundation, Bootstrapand Skeleton. You have SquareSpace, Wix and Weebly.

There are so much competitionand all these services are usually aimed at occasional customers, who are offered the opportunity to simply subscribe instead of looking for web designers.

The points I have listed so far certainly make you think: "OMG! These pre-built websites are the death of web design. The end is near!„

But What if not? What if these prefabricated websites don't destroy web design, but rather help web design become more profitable? What if they are not cars that replace horses, but are instead the Ubers to our normal cabs?

Finished websites are friends, not enemies

The purpose of these services, themes/templates and frameworks is to make the task of creating websites easier. A beginner who doesn't know what a good website should look like may find it easy to use an online website creation service. And if that person finds it easy, What else could an experienced designer do?

Well, if you ask me, are Ready-made websites really the end of web design?

My answer would be a clear no.

Contrary to popular opinion, I am of the opinion that Ready-made websites have exactly the opposite effectand in the following article I will explain how this happens.

No need to reinvent the wheel

There are no substitute for creativity and originalitybut originality doesn't always mean that you have to create something from scratch every time. I think a intelligent designer can create an original web design even if he uses a ready-made website template, by skillfully adapting it to his client's needs.

Faster throughput time = more money

In the field of web design, there are times when you suddenly enjoy the favor of Lady Luck. You can get as many projects in a single day as you could get in months. And suddenly time becomes a precious commodity as it turns directly into profits.

The biggest advantage that a ready-made website offers is faster turnaround time. Instead of hiring a helping hand or turning down some projects just because you want to create everything yourself, you can use pre-built websites to your advantage to get projects done faster.

Wondering if that doesn't affect the quality of the work? Well, it does to a certain extent, but if you're a smart designer, you can turn a boring template into a customized design.

A visualization aid for uninspired customers

So What is a good way to let him see what you see? Use templates.

By using templates, you can show what the design will most likely look like in the end. This means that you save yourself and your customer a lot of time by going through different communication channels just to hit the right spot.

Does that mean that anyone can do your job now?

Truly ready-made websites are very easy to use and literally anyone with a computer can use it, doesn't that mean that anyone can be a web designer now?

The answer would be no.

Yes, the actual work of inserting elements and customizing them can be done by anyone, but there are still things that come with strings attached - Things that can only be done by a professional web designer.

Limitations of ready-made websites & "child" designers

In this case I borrow the word "kiddie" from hacker terminology „script kiddie" - a hacker who only uses scripts created by others to cause damage on the Internet. Technically speaking, this is therefore only unskilled persons the not about the knowledge to make things work outside the limits of the tools they use.

1. color design cannot be learned in one day

In web design, choosing the right color scheme is is extremely important for the user experience and aesthetics. This requires years of experience and a natural eye for colors that complement each other.

This includes colors that are currently in fashion and how they are used to make websites look appealing.

2. the fonts are what subtly emphasize a website

Furthermore not everyone is adept at choosing the right typography and fonts. I mean, look at all those birthday invitations you got in Comic Sans. What a disaster!

Man does not simply use Times New Romans or Comic Sans on websites. An experienced web designer knows the psychology behind each font family, knows when to use Serif or Sans Serif how to emphasize headings and subheadings,how to emphasize each paragraph more clearlyand the like.

3. only experts know that it's not just the surface that counts

Web designers also work behind the scenes to ensure that every website they design is a success, works properly from a development perspective.

There are some Backend optimizations to be considered such as meta tags and descriptions, how to optimize any website for search engines and social media, and overall responsiveness are things that only a person with years of experience in this field can do.

To summarize

In summary, it can be said that prefabricated websites do not destroy web design, but instead help web designers and developers by making their work easier.more profitable and more valuable for their customers.

As Web designers shouldn't feel bad because you can't yet be overtaken by ready-made websites. Yes, some companies prefer easy-to-use and cheaper alternatives, but Nothing beats flexibility, reliability and originality a website created by real professionals.