Website Builder Platforms vs Custom Web Design

THE SPECTRUM OF WEB DESIGN — CONVENIENCE OR CUSTOM?

Discover the advantages and disadvantages of both website builder platforms and bespoke web design. Using these insights, as well as the particular needs of your organisation, you can decide which approach is best for your brand. Is it a simple matter of convenience vs custom, or is there more to the story?

WEB DESIGN EXPLAINED

Web design has come a long way since the early days of the internet. Once clunky, slow and unattractive, it has evolved to make user experience enjoyable and increase conversions through clever and interactive design. These principles form the basis of web best practices, which you can learn more about here. Techopedia defines web design as;

“the web development process for creating a website that focuses on aesthetic factors like layout, user interface and other visual imagery in order to make the website more visually appealing and easy to use.”

Once involving complex web development and expert coding knowledge, website creation has become more accessible than ever. Content Management Systems, templated designs and, more recently, web builder platforms allow for just about anyone (without much technical knowledge) to implement and manage a site in a quick, easy and cost-effective manner.

*User Experience = all the elements that together make up that interface, including layout, visual design, text, brand, sound, and interaction
*Web Development / Coding = tasks associated with developing websites for hosting via intranet or internet. It involves coding languages, such as html, to create visual elements and on-site functionality
*Content Management Systems = computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content

WEB BUILDERS

Web builder platforms are relatively new applications that allow you to design and develop websites in a “drag and drop” style fashion. They’re usually composed of modular elements, widgets and plugins that can be placed, moved around and edited. They require little to no coding knowledge, making web development accessible to almost anyone…