For much of recent history, a large group of professional web designers mocked the idea of DIY website builders. You know, the ones that claim that anyone can create a website with little effort.
On a couple of levels, this makes sense. First, when examining the outcomes of these tools, the marketing hype was rarely justified. Second, they could be viewed as an existential danger to designers who work with small businesses.
The line between customized and do-it-yourself is becoming increasingly blurred. What exactly does “customized” mean these days? And how do custom website design NYC service providers set themselves apart from the tools we employ?
Let’s take a look at this new situation and see what we can find.
Time-Saving vs. Doing It “Right”:
When it comes to DIY website builders, one of the most common worries among designers and developers is their quality. Yes, dragging-and-dropping your way to a nice-looking result is straightforward. But is this at the expense of industry standards, accessibility, or future maintenance needs?
Those are still valid issues to be concerned about. It can also be a mental challenge for those of us who prefer to have complete control over our creations. Choosing a no-code website builder like Elementor, Wix or Squarespace,n implies putting your faith in the tool’s ability to follow best business practices.
Even so, the appeal of saving valuable time can be too strong to resist.
Furthermore, many content management systems appear to have progressed beyond the use of custom code.
The arrival of block themes, on the other hand, has drastically changed the workflow. It’s no longer the experimental field for developers that it once was.
Some would even argue that writing code for design-related tasks is a relic of the past. Nonetheless, it provides several advantages in terms of quality and control. As a result, web designers are currently caught in the middle of two realms.
Redefining What a Custom Website Is
The state of web design is constantly changing. As a result, the concept of a “custom” website from Custom Backend Development is evolving — slowly but steadily. It has always been a debatable term. But that looks to be especially so right now.
Custom may have once been characterized as being written by hand. For a long time, however, this has not been the case. Using a content management system (CMS), a third-party theme or even a framework relieves us of a lot of the hard work.
A customized website today could be anything that differs from a stock setup. It could be a collection of plugins or code you’ve built. Maybe just changing the colors and modifying a few page layouts will work.
Perhaps the discussion on the modern web should no longer be about whether something is custom. It’s more about the extent to which it’s been personalized.
Expertise Is Where Professional Designers Stand Out
What does it mean for web designers now that we’ve discovered that various types of DIY website builders are dominating the world? The situation isn’t terrible.
That’s because, no matter how simple a tool is to use, varying levels of expertise will exist. A small business owner who desires a website will most likely be able to reach a certain point on his or her own. Web designers, on the other hand, are well-positioned to take over if they wish to go even further.
Expertise and expertise are essential. The complexities of design, programming, and content planning are not abilities that everyone possesses. To become knowledgeable in each field, you must put in the effort. This is where web designers may continue to set themselves apart and prove their worth. We can devise a method for creating websites that incorporates the best of both worlds. For the most part, DIY tools can be used, with custom code added as needed.
The Age of Less Code
It stands to reason that as the process of creating websites advances, there will be less of a need to start from scratch. As a result, there will be fewer lines of code to write. However, it’s difficult to imagine it ever being removed from consideration.
The types of projects you work on have a huge impact. Custom solutions are likely to be required for high-end and enterprise projects. Even projects that use off-the-shelf components, however, have to be customized. Project requirements must be met in terms of both design and functionality.
For some, the switch to a custom/DIY hybrid method is exasperating – and it’s simple to see why. It’s a new way of working that challenges us to rethink our processes.
At the same time, skilled and informed site designers are more important than ever. Expertise is always in demand, even if the tools change. This is why it is always recommended to only hire a top-notch web design agency, such as Map It Marketing Group to get your website designed.
