Low Cost Web Design Alternatives

Tramp Steamer Media's Mark Feffer wrote an article in the StartupJournal on "Low Cost Web Site Design." He summarizes the pros and cons of using online website templates vs paying for a custom website. Affordable Frontpage and Dreamweaver templates are also viable alternatives. The benefits include a very "usable website" that is very professional looking at about the same cost of an online website template.

Mr. Feffer points out that cash strapped businesses might find online website templates affordable. However, these products are limited in how they can be customized. Nevertheless, he points out that many businesses can go this route when starting up without any significant downside. Alternatively, the Low Cost Web Site Design article also makes the case that that other businesses might need an original solution for the web.

Frontpage and Dreamweaver Templates

Companies like PixelMill and Macromedia offer templates for the two most popular web development tools, Frontpage 2003 and Dreamweaver MX, respectively. Dreamweaver-Templates.org provides excellent independent reviews of templates also. There is quite a selection to choose from and more important, the templates are very customizable. These templates cost between $35 and $100.

Small businesses or startups can choose a template and find a web designer or firm willing to add content and customize the website. Prices generally start at $1,200.

Are Original Web Designs Worth it?

Even if one has the money to spend on an original design, you have to be careful that you don't end up with a design that doesn't work for users. You need a site that downloads fast, has a good information architecture (site map) and incorporates the five characteristics of usability into it.

You also have to ask yourself if the customized designs are all that original? There are millions of websites. While we believe that web designers are a creative lot, we also know that they borrow ideas from existing websites. No slight intended here, the car manufacturers have been at it for years. Besides, there's a growing body of knowledge of what works and doesn't work on the Internet.

Besides that, as budgets have tightened the emphasis on web design has started to shift away from what is "pretty" toward what actually increases revenues, delights users or increases memberships, i.e. web usability. The latter'goal is to provide users with a good experience on the website. Your goal is to strike a balance between good usability and design.

The templates offered by Pixell Mill and those reviewed by Dreamweaver-Templates.org are gnerally more usable and have good code. They also use cascading style sheets that control layout. This makes it easier to change the color or size of fonts in the entire design. The style sheets also provides consistency and structure to a website.

While an original web design might be pretty cool, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is usable. That's an entirely different animal. Usability has to be built into a website no matter if you use one of the Frontpage and Dreamweaver templates or start with an original solution. The problem with the online templates cited in Mr. Ferrer's article is that a small business may not able to incorporate the usability into them easily.

Examples of Templates that Work

We have first hand experience in using templates. In fact, this blog (), created by Movable Type software, illustrates this. Usability is our forte and we chose Movable Type's default templates and style sheets simply because the default templates are very usable. Even if we were a firm with a creative or artsy bent, we would have chose the same templates and then incorporated the imagery into the blog.

Our former website, Millennial Living was developed from a Frontpage Template purchased from Pixell Mill for about $49.95. Of course we modified the templates to incorporate usability and set up the information architecture. We also incorporated ecommerce into the website using Microsoft bCentral with relative ease. A custom website would have set us back about $6,000. We've earmarked that money for marketing instead.

The Ideal Solution

The online website template company that incorporates usability into its products with a professional design will have a winner. However, until that comes, Frontpage and Dreamer templates are a good approach for savvy businesses and nonprofits who want professional looking and well designed websites at a reasonable cost.

For more information on how usability is important in web design, see some of our usability reviews

Comments

[Chris Doyle]

We're pleased that you've found PixelMill.com a viable, high quality alternative to custom-designed Web sites.

In fact, your readers can view PixelMill as a time-saving, high-quality and cost-effective option that bridges the gap between high-end, expensive custom Web design houses and low-end, non-supported and inflexible online site building tools.

If ever we can serve as a resource and/or contributor to Millennial Living's Blog, we hope that you will contact us.

Please note that on the first mention of our company is noted as, "Pixel Works," and, of course, should read, "PixelMill," as you've noted subsequently in this informative Blog. We certainly appreciate the recognition.

One topic for future consideration may be to help your viewers understand that they also will want to ensure that the templates they're purchasing are guaranteed royalty- and copyright infringement-free. At PixelMill, we guarantee that. It's an emerging issue that requires special scrutiny.

Best regards, Chris Doyle, PixelMill.com