Why is Web Design Dead? High-Quality Templates for Your Site’s Needs

Why is Web Design Dead? It’s not that web design as a whole is dead, but rather that the traditional approach to web design is becoming less relevant. It also seem a little crazy to think that website design is dying in a world where everyone and everything just about has a website. How can there be no need for web design in this day and age? 

The short answer: templates are taking the place of custom design.

When saying that web design is dead, that doesn’t mean there is no design left for the internet. It just means that people are generally customizing high-quality templates rather than creating brand new web designs from scratch. It also doesn’t mean that there is no more need for web designers and developers. Professionals in these fields simply need to adjust the way they work to keep up with the changing trends online.

3 Main Reasons Why is Web Design Dead

Let’s take a look at why web design has started to die out and what the major changes in the online world have done to this line of work:

Users And Search Engines Want Functionality And Ease Of Use

The functionality of a website is now far more important than how it looks. People don’t want something fancy that they have to learn how to use or how to navigate. The same people also no longer care about how pretty the website is, or how nice it is to look at. In fact, 76% of users care more about how easy it is to use the website than any other aspect of it.

The same goes for search engines. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are all emphasizing the importance of usability and user experience as a massive part of how they rank websites in the search engine results. If the search engine bots can’t work out what’s on the website because the design is too original, you’re going to struggle to rank highly.

Website Builders Are Making Design Easier Than Ever

Platforms like WordPress and Wix have created a market for plug-and-play websites that are easy to build and look extremely professional. These website builders help people to create a site that’s suitable for their business and make suggestions about layout, colors, formats, and styles. There are hundreds of themes that can be customized, and it doesn’t take more than a few clicks or drops and drags to create a working site. 

Increasingly, website builders are using AI to guide users through the process of building their sites. From suggesting themes to recommending plug-ins and images, AI is helping everyone get the best possible results. This means that just about anyone can create a website that is tailored to suit their brand or business without needing to enlist the help of a professional developer.

Focus Has Shifted To UX

User experience (UX) design has been a monumental shift in thinking for designers. It’s all about creating something that looks good, but more importantly, offers up an experience that users appreciate. It reflects the function of the website (or any item being designed) rather than its visual interest.

In order to do UX design well, testing needs to be done to ensure that users are happy. However, before you get to that point, the designer needs to analyze how humans interact with websites and with the brand. Factors like the fonts and colors are less important than the architecture of the site itself. This has meant that original, custom designs for websites are becoming less and less popular.

How Templates Have Changed The Game

The world of themes and templates for websites is growing and becoming increasingly sophisticated. You now have some of the best web designers building high-quality templates for WordPress, Wix, and other popular CMS platforms. 

They’re Already Set Up For The Modern World

A well-designed template already has all of the user experience functionality built into it. This means that your website will automatically be set up for search engine optimization (SEO) with your headings labeled correctly as H1s and H2s, etc. Your website will also automatically be responsive to screen size, which is a huge must for the world of tablets and smartphones and a major plus for SEO too.

Templates Show You What You’re Getting

 If you’re building a website from scratch, it’s tricky deciding what layout to go for. A blank screen has no guidelines, and you must create a design that’s entirely your own. However, when you’re looking through a library of templates, you can already see a layout and start to imagine what it would look like with your branding on it, or your products displayed.

This is far more powerful for the average person who doesn’t work in the design world. It provides an excellent starting point, and for a new brand, it can provide much-needed direction in the identity they’re trying to establish too. 

Customizable Templates Are More Cost-Effective

Whether you’re running an eCommerce store or are a photographer who wants to show off their portfolio online, the costs involved in building a website from scratch are hefty if you’re going for a custom created design. Even the more expensive templates are always going to be cheaper, even after factoring in getting a web designer to customize them for you. With a template, the groundwork is already done, and you or your designer simply need to add in your colors, images, and text to make it your own.

Build-Your-Own Sites Are Rising In Popularity

WordPress and Wix are probably the two most popular website CMS platforms in the world. But there are a lot more than just those two. These platforms are growing in popularity as more and more digitally savvy people are starting their own businesses or creating online side hustles. It’s never been easier for the average person to create their own website without the help of a designer. That’s why, a person should possess a certain amount of knowledge and experience in web design before proceeding to design a website on his/her own.

Final Thoughts

the traditional approach to web design is becoming less relevant, which is why some people may ask “Why is Web Design Dead?”. However, this does not mean that web design as a whole is dead. Instead, people are increasingly using high-quality templates to create websites rather than starting from scratch with custom designs.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that web designers are completely out of work. Just because everyone can now make their own website with a template doesn’t mean they should. Or that they do. What it means is that web designers can use templates to help make great websites more affordable to small businesses. 

It’s a win-win situation that ensures everyone has the opportunity to establish a digital presence in an ever-evolving online world.