Custom Website Designers

10 REASONS CUSTOM WEB DESIGN IS DYING

Ten years ago, it was taboo to utter the word “template” to a customer when discussing their new website. I avoided this word at all costs, and if I ever did say the word “template” I quickly followed it with an explanation of why the word “template” just left my mouth. After all, haven’t we all heard a client say, “this design looks too much like a template” when rejecting one of our custom website designs. Because of this fear, I along with thousands of other web designers went through a huge identity crisis. We all thought that every website should be custom, because that’s what we thought our customers wanted. Looking back years later, I’ve realized that nothing could be further from the truth. Custom web design is dying and here are 10 reasons why.

1. Design is Too Important

How many amazing websites have you designed only to have it later destroyed by your customer?That happened so much at The Ocean Agency that we stopped linking to our client’s websites on our portfolio. Now we just show screenshots to save us from the embarrassment of what some of our clients later did to their amazing custom websites.

2. Users Don’t Care about Custom

That being said, a custom website could be detrimental to your brand and online success. Go with a tested and proven theme designed by an expert web designer with years of experience. By no means does this mean that themes are perfect. Every website needs AB testing and multi-variant testing. But as far as building something from scratch, why reinvent a really awesome wheel?

3. Form Follows Function

On the web, “function” is much more important than “form” because good functionality leads to content. To a visitor, “form” is a subconscious given. However, quality content is not.

4. Templates and Themes are Awesome Now

Five or six years ago, templates and themes sucked. I would have never recommended them to any client. Custom was the way to go. But not today.

5. You’ll Sell More!
Why do some cereal companies use a glue mixture instead of milk when showing a bowl of cereal in a commercial?
Because glue photographs much better than milk to a consumer, and consumers are very visual.

6. Opportunity Cost

By the way, one of the hardest things to do when custom designing a website is to launch on time. That’s because there are so many factors that go into finishing a custom website and getting it approved by your client.

7. Competitive Pricing

Everyone wants to save money, especially in this economy, and anything custom is expensive for everyone, especially the client. Themes take many time-consuming tasks out of the equation, dropping your costs and your pricing.

8. Sales Don’t Always Equal Profits

By offering themes, not only did we cut pricing, but we actually increased our profit margins.We often turn down clients who want a custom web design because our margins are often too low.

9. Clients from Hell

A client from hell is much easier to control when developing a theme rather than a custom website. There are fewer opinions, less changes, and less time spent with the client.

10. Build Your Own Site .com’s

If you’re a web designer and you’re scared about websites like Wix and 1and1.com, don’t be. They’re not going to put you out of business.

At Dizzain we always try to find the most efficient and cost effective solution for our customers.

So when the limitations of the packaged CMS or E-commerce solution are standing in the way of the customers agenda we are offering our custom website development option. Custom development does not imply reinventing the wheel as we use proven frameworks and platforms but still deliver a solution precisely to the specification. Here are some of the benefits of custom website development from Dizzain.