Making sites that look like they were made from good templates.

[tibberous]

In my oppinion, only about 10% of websites really look and work good. Even these 10% really are crappy when you compare them to the websites at places like Template Park (http://www.templatepark.com/templates.php).

What I am really looking for is a guide to make websites that look like the ones at template park. I don't care about useability and all that crap, I just want templaty sites. There all so good, like, I don't know anyone who could even come close...

Also, I can code and markup about 90% of the sites on there, so I really don't need anymore coding or html/css knowledge (just some 3d design and flash effects and I'll be all set).

[will7]

Only 10% of websites look good and work good? Sorry pal, but that's complete b******s! What would you rather have - a simple, yet pretty nice site that delivers powerful content, quickly, or a slow loading, but pretty impressive site that delives OK content? Myself, I'd go for the former.

Sure, your site looks good, but you want the user to stay around to actually see it don't you!?!?! Usability is important, you want a site that works well and quickly.

You want a 'templatey' feel? That's a bit silly. Do you want people to look at your web site and say "Is this a template", it just lowers your reputation and people think you're lame for using them.

There are loads of people who could 'come close' to designs like that. Gylakk, Brak, Splufdaddy, Transio and Trico spring to mind... I personally feel the people's sites I just mentioned are much better than any on that template site.

Sites that people spend time designing, take the time to check over code, make sure all bugs are worked out, try to optimize for as many browsers as possible, make sure the site is at it's best possible look (within reason) - they're the sites that get hits.

I hope you have learnt at least one tiny thing from my post - templates aren't the be it all end it all of web design!!!! I would like to note, this is my opinion only (although I do know many other who share it), I am not telling you what to do. And also, sorry for my language in the beginning.

If you want a 'templatey' site, then don't ask me - coz I don't really know. I think they're just photoshop designs. I have just tried to shed you a new light on web design and tell you that custom, unique-to-the-designer sites are the best on the net!

[tibberous]

Everything you said is great, in sites that focus on things like content. But what if I need to make a page for my webdesign company? It really doesn't have much content. Say what you will about templatey sites, but I really think they are the way to go when your trying to showcase 5-10 pages of content. Problem is I can't find anywhere that shows how to go about making one.

[will7]

That's all very well, but often, 'templatey' sites contain lots of flash and large size graphics - meaning that viewers aren't actually gonna stick around to see your fantastic portfolio.

And I think it's just web designers who make a layout in photoshop, basically, make a site, then make it a template in dreamweaver and give em that. Just make it good.

[TimeBandit]

i think a lot of template sites look nice too, but there's more to web site design than "it looks nice"

your web site should be all about delivering content, whatever that is, whether it's your art portfolio, cell phones you're selling, information on the mating of bees, whatever. the problem is that you get a template that looks nice but it isn't made for your content.

wouldn't be so bad if u could take a template and make it work for your content, but then u probably wouldn't be buying a template if u could do this already. you'll end up with a page that's designed to hold, say, 6 buckets of information when you really only have 1, or whatever.

page designs are created to emphasize certain parts of your content, to "push" people to certain areas of your site. whther you're selling something or not you probaably have areas your user prefer or that you WANT them to go to more often. finding the right balance between what you "push" and don't push are what lies in good page design.

another matter is code. good code is important. lots of these template sites have extraneous code in them, or bad code, or are coded in such a way that they do not offer cross-platform or multi-browser support.

but all that stuff isn't important to a lot of folks. they just want a pretty web site to show people and say "look, it's pretty," and I can understand that. really, if you're not selling anything, what more do you need than a web site that looks nice to display whatever it is you want to display? if you're not selling anything then it doesn't really matter if your site doesn't work on 30% of the browsers out there, or that blind people have trouble using it, or that it isn't search engine friendly, or that it's chock full of code it doens't need, etc.

there are a lot of "web designers" around and i think sometimes we perpetuate this false need for redesigning every web site out there because it isn't pretty, or because it isn't exactly as we think it should be done. the truth is that many web sites could benefit from either some design changes or more often code optimization, but not every page needs this. if Joe Blow doesn't need to be optimized for a search engine and he just wants a web site that shows his friends his photos or a blog, he doesn't need web design.

i often find that a lot of the problem in this industry has to do with the believe that web sites are some sort of magic. people think the site sbuild themselves, or that if they can just get good Photoshop layouts they can build it themselves, or if they can just get someone to code their great Photoshop files, or if you can just get me a template i can fill it out myself, ad nauseum.

Web design is like any other profession. I don't know how to redesign my bathroom but with a couple books and some tips from friends I could do it. It'd be half-a$$ed and would lower the resale value of my house because it isn't a professional job, but i could do it eventually. Probably!

Same thing with web design. Almost anyone could learn to do a half-a$$ed job at it. If that's what you want then go for it, buy a template. People don't always check the caulking job i did on my battub, they probably won't be concerned about your sloppy code.

[raspberryh]

You want a 'templatey' feel? That's a bit silly. Do you want people to look at your web site and say "Is this a template", it just lowers your reputation and people think you're lame for using them.

^ Exactly what I was thinking!

...custom, unique-to-the-designer sites are the best on the net!

^ Yes, I totally agree!

I hate templates. It is sooo nice to know that some people out there (you guys) feel the same way I do about templates. You rock!

Heather

[Holokai]

I feel that using a template (and other peoples scripts and code, for that matter) is a bit like cheating yourself. I see some sweet PHP, and I want it on my site, I'm gonna go ahead and write my own script to do it. Same thing for template sites. I admit that I'm not very good at design, but when I see a template I like, I'll analyze it a bit, and move to the next, till I get an idea of what MY template will look like. Then I make it and fill it with content.

I think templates have their place, as TimeBandit said. But I think that more importantly, us newbs here can learn alot from nicely done templates.

fwiw

- Chris