Is web design dying? Is custom design gone? How do we convince people that custom design is better than the 10 buck template deal online?

I agree with John James on this one. I’m always hearing about how web design is dead.

While it is true that online designers like wix have made it easier for new businesses to get a site online, custom website design is still an essential part of online success.

Why is that?

Because stock template just aren’t set up for the personalized aspects that are core to online brands.

Take for example the plethora of themes available on Themeforest for Wordpress or the free and paid themes available on Saas platforms like Bigcommerce and Shopify…

There are a LOT of great looking and highly functional themes, but Pixel Productions is still doing the same volume of custom builds on each of these platforms.

Why is that?

Because custom web development increase ROI, improves customer experience and increases customer retention.

Besides the obvious user experience pitfalls of out-of-the-box sites builders, website owners should be concerned about the following;

Most website builders compensate for a users’ lack of technical knowledge with code that causes developers to quiver with rage and nausea.

Site Speed - compensation for that lack of technical knowledge leads to extra code that bogs down site speed that backed up by insufficient hosting.

Limitations - I can’t tell you how many new businesses contact us after a year of being on a system like Wix having maxed out it’s functionality and having no options for expansion or improvement.

I’m all for free and great online tools to improve business, but entrepreneurs shouldn’t approach any business aspect ‘half-assed’, because it’s your business that will be hindered.

Hi, I have been in the industry for several years and I have been self employed within the industry for 2 years. Unfortunately I found that the hardest part to generating income by designing websites for customers is that I get hit with the retort that they can get a much cheaper website from larger companies, which is true as I couldn't compete with the low (intial) charges.
Many people simply wouldn't listen to why a bespoke service is better and the reasons for the added expence. I changed my approach and actually targetted companies that had websites provided by larger companies that weren't happy with the results or services provided by the larger companies. This soon generated a few re-design bits of work, which increased my portfolio etc.
Once you have designed a few good websites, and SEO'd and marketed them properly those customers will generate you knew custom.
I have a 6 month waiting list for website responsive website design now, as my customers know they will get a website that will look and operate the way they want it to, but you do have to knock on those doors 'til your knuckles bleed to get the break through.
Web design is a very saturated market, but a satisfying one if you break through in it. Many of the responsive website templates are extremely good now and not to be ignored, but the average website owner won't have the skills or knowledge to bring the best out of these templates.
Also add more usabilty, functionality, logo designing, social media managment or search marketing to you customers, as they will wan't more for there buck so you have to provide it to get on etc.
In short I do feel that web design has been drastically undervalued in recent years due to larger template companies dominating, but there still is a great need for bespoke website designing and once you get a good client base you'll probably do okay, so don't give up! :)

Design has become commodotized as more people want a site, but the functionality has rocketed.

I would say there was more design variety in 1999-2004 when I started web design (I learned and part time freelanced web design 1997-1999 and got my first full time job in it in June 2000). There were lots of artistic and edgy sites that were not trying to sell anything and were a thing in their own right, plus more and varied 'design references' even in business sites.

But there was also far less functionality: no social media sites and only some socially generated content and communities, hardly any video sites, no online encyclopaedias or code-gardens (like codepen), and no crowd-funding at all.

No virtual money, no music streaming sites. Very little choices in back end technologies and very few heavy lifting front end languages (there was Java, and that was about it). Oh, and no multiple targets: only desktop and no mobile and tablet.

Online massively multi-player, online storage and online maps (with street views even!) were only just becoming things, and nobody worked in a tech job from home.

And the list goes on.

Sure, today we have only a handful of site 'reference designs', coupled with what is almost a set of 'uniforms' for each type of site. But design is also less center stage. Years ago, I used to look at web design showcase sites, but now that just seems a little quaint...

Today we look at the latest .js libraries and frameworks, and look at different low level technologies to do cool stuff: canvas, webGL, SVG, all of which are leading us to web applications as the 'cool stuff' rather than 'web sites'.

The future is pared back non-skeumorphic and device independent design coupled with massive amounts of content and functionality,

That does not mean creativity on the web is dying. It means creativity lives in content and feature set. Best of all, you won't be undercut on them for a while!

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Edit: to address the elephant in the room; yes, there are lots of people making money from templates but they are not even close to the amount advanced custom design makes. There is a shortage of people who can do the latter, so rates are high and there is a healthy career path.

My tip for getting on the right side of the equation is to try to work for companies that are building only internal projects rather than ones who only do only designs for clients. Obviously this is sometimes impossible, but take the former over the latter every time if you have a choice; it makes a big difference.

If you come in early and make a custom web application for a start-up or even mid sized company, you not only do more interesting and original work, you also benefit from the change in fortune of the company due to your work.

Consider the people who wrote the Uber app vs a third party who might have been contracted to do a refresh of the main Uber website (which is a very standard website with no surprises in it’s design - apart from the resurgence of teal*). Massive difference in prestige and pay/options!

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*Teal - Very overused color within web design, late 199os to early 2000’s - Google ‘Windows 95 Teal’ to see where it came from.

From 2011 to mid 2015, I worked at an agency. My projects started with very custom websites designed and built from scratch. At the end of my career, I only published $50 WordPress themes. I too have been wondering the very same thing.

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A website is a communication tool, and companies know it, although they do not fully understand the concept of ‘communication’, and quite frankly our perception of it has changed quite drastically past ten years. Just like a joke’s punchline, the delivery of a message is vital of it’s perception, and exploring the effect of a punchline in online communication is relatively new. We know it, but everyone else still have to be educated, which is the first problem; clients don’t know the impact of good design.

At the agency I worked at, our clients were small business in the area. They simply didn’t have the budget to make something unique. As the financial crisis worsened, we noticed a significant decrease in the amount of money clients were willing to spend.

Larger businesses often have more money to spend, but also tend to be more educated in the importance of corporate identity and thus are willingly to spend money on good quality.

A bakery, for example, may have less need for a website. In fact, a reference in Google Maps ought to be enough to be found. Their interest isn’t in seducing someone from the other side of the world, their interest is spontaneous and regular customers, so will try to emphasize quality and on-location seduction through print. A shop that runs on online purchases will value Search Engine Optimisation and User Experience much more, as their revenue rely on those factors.

The question you should be asking is “where do I find clients that rely on my work to increase revenue?”

As for competition within the industry; I believe vacancies for designers without expertise are relatively rare. A designer with an expertise, like User Experience, is much more likely to find work, often as an in-house.

No web design is not dying. Today every business needs their own websites and the outdated websites is also need a new design so how can we say that it’s dying.

But the problem is that some people are making designs by getting a very minimum cost. New people are trying to stable in the market and that was why they are selling designs in a low cost. Sometimes clients are not so satisfy after getting their products. So they prefer pre designed templates which is also a cost effective option for clients.

So if people can provide quality work with a good budget then the market will not going to die. Also if someone can make a quality work then I don’t think that he need to serve in a low budget.

If we check the marketplace like freelancer.com. then we will see that there are so many people placed their bids some are good and some are very low. But the client will hire those people who have a previous experience related to that project, not the low budget guy.

My suggestion is that if you can create a good websites then please make it as a product and sell it to multiple clients in an average cost. If your product is good then you will get a good number of sell. I think this is the thing which is happening with the $10 template. They are making premium bootstrap templates or premium wordpress themes to sell multiple clients. If it’s purchased by 10 people then you will get $100. This is a good amount for selling a template.

A decade ago, the word “template” was considered as taboo while holding a discussion with the customer regarding their new website. The fear is such that there was a huge identity crisis among the thousands of other web designers. We always thought that customers only wanted custom designed websites for them. However, today we come to realization that it was nothing but a myth and had no relation with the truth. Here are the following reasons why the Custom web design is dying.

a) Importance of Design

The term custom indicates that it is all about the customer and he/she knows everything about it. It also allows the client to pretend as if they are familiar with everything including how a website should like, but in actual practice the reality is much different. Despite the fact that clients pretend a lot and think that they are the actual web developers, however the case is much different.

b) Clients need websites nothing more

It is important to know that websites are not designed for the clients, rather than the users. This is the thing that needs to be addressed with the clients. Users have no concern whether their website is custom made or not.