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Namely, is there repetition in style amongst your
competition? If you where starting a business to rival NetFlix & Blockbuster
movie rentals online, you would immediately become aware that the two look very
much identical except for the color scheme. In a similar respect, you may even
find two websites using the exact same design in the same industry. Then you may
find the exact same web design on a web design template site! This situation is
the low point of template web design buying. If you decide to use a template
(and I will argue that sometimes this is the way to go) you MUST KNOW YOUR
COMPETITION! If nothing else, template
web design can spark ideas. There are many template sites out there like
BoxedArt.com and TemplateMonster.com, and even a variety of free ones, with
decent web site designs. When browsing through these sites it can be very
helpful for sparking the idea in your head of what you may want your web design
project to be like. Adversely, many of the templates found are also very generic
to a certain point. There tends to be an overwhelmingly corporate feel to a high
percentage of templates on the market. Not all web designs call for a corporate
look but just simply need to look professional to gain credibility. Take aspects
that work from different designs and merge them with the current identity you
are looking for. Don’t get carried away with this process though, if you take
away a little from each one you may get a very disorienting look and feel to the
site as each design may vary. Likewise, when I say take it is important to
emphasize that I am not talking about stealing. These template designers have
spent time and expect return, however if you find a font you like and match
something as simple as this to a similar font that would fit in with your design
then use the idea. Don’t directly take images or color layouts. This browsing of
templates for ideas is very much like browsing your competitor’s websites for
ideas and scoping the market.
If you are looking at purchasing a template
make sure to follow these guidelines:
1. Know that your competitors are not using
this template. If you are a national chain, you will probably not be reading
this as you may very well have your own unique design team. For everyone else,
how far does your competition boundary spread? If you own a local hot dog stand,
you may only have a handful of competitors in your area that are branding
themselves. Buying a template that can be purchased by the public even after you
purchase it may be ok in this instance if the hot dog template is a great
design. In this case it would be a perfect fit for a low priced design that may
be high quality. If however you may run into multi-state or national competition
for your product then you may opt against the generic template as a foundation
to your design.
2. Make sure the template is only the
foundation to your web design building. This may mean that you use the overall
structure of the design, but change all the graphics to make the design more
personalized. Often times this also means that you will change the color scheme
to fit with your current identity or logo. Also, maybe only a portion of the
template should be used. Does it have a great looking header or search box, but
the rest of the site is left to be desired?
3. Always make sure to follow the guidelines of
the company your purchase your web design template from. This is important as
certain amount of “redesign” of the template is most likely expected in the user
agreement.
Templates certainly are not for everyone,
however when small business owners are just trying to get there feet wet online,
a template may be the best choice. They are typically professional looking, well
thought out (in many industry themes), require less knowledge to build from than
a web design from scratch and most certainly more affordable than starting a web
design from scratch.
As a side note: There are many web template
sites out there that also sell limited download web design templates for a
little more money. These are templates that once purchased a few or one time are
taken from the template library and now longer available for purchase. These can
keep branding in house and save time and money if the design is what you are
looking for.
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