A Short History of Website Design and the Advent of Web Templates

When the World Wide Web began in and around 1990 design was of the minimum. Put frankly, website design was simply not a priority. Nor could it be. You see, at the time, computers were crunched to the max just in computing and displaying basic tabular data. At that time people were merely amazed that there was a medium able to send large amounts of data from one computer, in one location, to another computer in a completely different location.

Web design certainly has come a long way since those early days. Today the World Wide Web is a design extravaganza. Not only are vast amounts of information sent from one corner of the world to another, in the blink of an eye, but web surfers are able to see stunning designs at the forefront of this “data exchange”. As the Web moved from being a chiefly educational medium, to being a new center for commerce, design quickly followed. As major retailers looked to add to their brick and mortar sales with online business, the race was on to create virtual storefronts that were as stunning as the real thing.  

Large companies were, and are, able to pay for custom design work because they have the deep pockets to do so. And deep pockets are often necessary. And that’s because custom design is not an inexpensive prospect. Sometimes people are surprised by how expensive custom website design can be; but, in truth, the process is more time-consuming than the average person realizes. Quality website design is also a very skill-rich field. Someone might be able to dream up a website vision, but turning that dream into reality is another thing altogether! A deep, diverse knowledge of HTML, CSS, and image editing (such as Adobe Photoshop) is necessary. And that’s not even taking into account of dynamic functions- which requires another entire set of software knowledge.

So, while web design can work wonders in today’s Internet world, if it’s so expensive, what options are available to the average person or to the average sized company? Well, two words say it all: web templates. A web template is a pre-formatted web design that is sold on multiple occasions. By pre-formatting a web template and then selling on repeated occasions, the web design firm is able to spread the cost of the design work over multiple purchases. A project that would normally cost anywhere from $2000 to $10000 for custom website design work, can now be sold in portions, at anywhere between $30 and $80 a pop.

It doesn’t take a genius to see why pre-formatted web templates represent a great opportunity for cost-wary customers to end up with a website that is as striking and effective as the websites offered by the largest of companies and organizations. This actually a unique way that web templates level the playing field between the large and small kids on the online block. Via the use of a web template, a small company can compete, both in functionality and design appeal, with the world’s largest retailers. There’s no real way to curtail the prices of a brick and mortar store, but thankfully, in the online world, web templates make this not only a possibility, but a regular occurrence.

While price is perhaps the paramount reason why choosing from a variety of pre-formatted web templates is a great option for the average organization, church, individual or company, its certainly not the only reason. Turnaround time is another major reason why web templates work so well for so many people. Not only is custom website design work expensive, but it is also time-consuming. Not so with a pre-formatted web template. Most web template companies deliver you the entire template, in zipped form, within hours of purchase. And from there all that’s left to do is for you to customize the template to suit your immediate website project needs.

While the vast majority of these templates are very user-friendly, there is some basic pre-requisite knowledge of HTML and CSS required. For those individuals, churches or companies that aren’t able to customize the web template themselves, many companies feature template customization packages in which they do that set-up work for you. Again, because these companies are customizing their own pre-formatted templates for you, they tend to be very familiar with the inner workings. As a result, once again, both turnaround time and cost are not at all prohibitive.

Today the World Wide Web is growing at a pace many of the Net’s forefathers never would have imagined. Each and every year millions of websites are added to the mix. Not all of these websites feature outstanding design of course- but many do. And that’s a very good reason to go the route of a pre-formatted web template. Not only is this option cost and time effective, but it also allows smaller companies and organizations to compete on the online stage.

Considering a growing number of web users now use high speed internet access and computers that blaze at speeds unheard of only a few years ago, download time is also less of an issue. This allows for more complicated, intricate, impacting design. Of course, with the advent of CSS, pre-formatted web templates can feature outstanding design appeal, without adding very much to the download time to the average site. But even this is a skill that only web design experts understand. And this is yet another reason why the world of web templates is so inviting.