Bespoke Vs Templates

General topic here, casting views from everyone with all different experiences.

I pride myself on offering clients 100% bespoke websites. Its going well, I'm happy with the "every project is different" approach.

But what really gripes me, is when a client doesn't even reply to emails, then turns up with a website template on there site that looks gash... I know it might be cheaper, I know it might be easier (aparently) but I look at it and think...

How can a client that's hoping to run a successful e-commerce site be happy with that as there customers first impressions?

I wrote this article, http://www.gelstudios.co.uk/blog/articles/2012/why-a-bespoke-website-is-better-for-your-business.html and wouldn't mind sparking off a bit of a discussion!

What are your views? Bespoke - or Template...?

Quote from: gelstudios at Nov 29, 2012, 05:05 AM

General topic here, casting views from everyone with all different experiences.

I pride myself on offering clients 100% bespoke websites. Its going well, I'm happy with the "every project is different" approach.

As do I. That said, though, I don't think it invalidates a business model for vendors that use templates; it's just a different client mix and business philosophy.

If anything, template sites -- and their downsides for certain clients, as well-described in your blog post -- serve as good counter-examples for me to use to describe my one of a kind services.

If a client doesn't want / can't afford a custom site... that's OK. They have alternatives. If a client wants craftsman-like quality for their business needs, then my business model is one that they may well consider.

No big deal, in my opinion. Room for both.

Bespoke all the way!

We have adopted this approach as it gives us a lot more flexibility to pick and choose client projects.

We have been involved with many projects in the past, where clients have opted for a template approach. More times than not, this approach is very difficult to project manage. Deadlines are always closer (which never get met) and budgets are most definitely lower. End product always suffers.

I personally have never compromised the design/development of a website whatever approach was taken. However, having decided to stick with a bespoke approach as part of our business strategy, many years ago - we have never looked back.

In my opinion, with a bespoke approach we are able to offer the perfect customer service, which I feel is the most important element of any successful business.

We are finding some of the templates at http://www.themeforest.net to be quite good and with a little customization, you can make them look fairly unique. Many are very well designed (and coded for that matter) so we have no problem using them and customizing them. Many clients simply won't pay for a full custom design these days. Of course, some do, and we're happy to oblige.

It all depends on the type of client and the type of site. I say go with both approaches, using whatever is appropriate. I'd say in many ways there is a sort of standard in layout these days which arguably makes sites easier to use, particularly eCommerce sites.

Really all it takes to customize and individualize any template is the CSS. Consider http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/ - the exact same HTML, just variations on the CSS.

Susan -- great example in Zen Garden -- thanks for the reminder. Haven't looked at it in quite some time, but it (in the form @ csszengarden.com) was very, very inspirational when it first came out. CSS changes to template, of course, are predicated on strong, forward-thinking, semantically-correct HTML. Not so with more than a few templates I've seen, or... ahemmm, for that matter, with certain (not MODX of course) CMS's forcing a 'template' on the user. My "male pattern baldness" is in part due to dealing with some of that and the resultant hair-pulling that results.

rx2 -- You make a good point in re: e-commerce sites. Right or wrong, especially for e-commerce, there's a certain defacto "what goes where" in the mind of the visitor. Those selling things online who diverge greatly from that layout expectation do so at the peril of their bottom line.

As a developer with no idea on how to design, template sites have been a huge help for me in the past for smaller clients. Make a selection of themes that fit the client, customise it a bit, and everyone's happy. While there's definitely themes that don't work too well or are a pain to customise properly, the opposite is also true... sometimes I see a bespoke design which makes me think it would've been better for the client to just pick a template

That said - if someone is serious about their business / website / project, I'm a big fan of doing it right and getting an actual designer involved that builds it custom from the start. Just not everyone can do that every time.

Twice I paid a lot for a design, which designs looked very nice, but in both cases I (or rather the client) was not at all pleased with the HTML structure and completely restructured the template, actually only using the colors and backgrounds. Since there really are only a handful of basic HTML structures, (for the most part anyway) I look for interesting layouts in the free templates sites, pretty much ignoring the colors and images; those I can add later.

Lately, too, there is a push for "responsive" or otherwise templates for smaller devices, pads and phones, so I'm now experimenting with the various responsive frameworks to find which one I like the best. Once I decide on one, I'll just manipulate it with the CSS to suit just about anybody. I've gotten rather partial to Skeleton - it's fairly lightweight and very easy to work with.

A few of my favorite sites:

http://speckyboy.com/2012/09/03/20-free-responsive-html-css-templates/
http://www.os-templates.com/free-responsive-templates
(not responsive, but I love this one) http://freehtml5templates.com/downloads/free/gardenfolio/

We have always done custom websites, with a small (5 or less) selection of template based sites for cheap clients. Lately I have been leveraging Base (http://matthewhartman.github.com/base/) for projects. It's a very basic (guess I am still hooked to hand coding everything my way) but get's the job done well.

I've done both, but I prefer so much to do custom nowadays. Cheaper clients usually end up causing more trouble in the long-run (at least for me). Never heard of base, will check it out. I'm stuck on Zurb's Foundation http://foundation.zurb.com/ I highly recommend it.