A beautiful web to behold!

[Jared Ritchey]

A beautiful web to behold!
In the land of Utopia, all websites are pretty to look at, they have pinks and they have purples, the navigation is guided navigation, from general to specific, and the information the user desires is personal, informative, fulfilling and no further than two clicks away. So impressive are the web site designs in Utopia that visitors camp out on web sites for hours, digesting volumes of knowledge that is presented in a pleasant candy coated way, where trust and credibility are established instantly. Thus, site visitors, with wallet in hand, all become buyers and the site owner's relax on the beach with his laptop enjoying the gentle and musical tone of cash registers ringing in sales.

And then we wake up!

The purpose of this thread is to articulate a few fundamental points prior to me posting differences in the types and methods of web design as we look at templates vs. custom. So we explore design in a series of threads eagerly awaiting your ideas, your thoughts and your feedback that we build a foundation, for lack of a better term, designed with forethought and planning to educate you for informed decisions for your own projects.

The Fundamentals!
A wise person once said to me that fundamentals never die. An axe is as good today as it was eons ago at its birth. Still just as functional in concept as the wheel which has remained unchanged for the most part any fundamental to truly wear that label will have stood the test of time.

It should almost be academic that "You never get a second chance to make a first impression" yet we see so many web sites that seem to operate contrary to this fundamental belief. In the designers world "Appearance is golden but and content is King" and is one of the fundamental truths a good designer would be wise to keep in mind. As both content and design should complement one another for one without the other, is an incomplete work, its not a website. Yet this wisdom escapes so many, that we must explore or shall I say expose the fault in ignoring this fundamental. One cant chose Template vs Custom without the slightest clue of such wisdom. And so it begins, fundamentals;

That sure is a pretty advertisement! Isn't it?
Like A beautiful brochure without any text. Or a collection of words with the visual appeal of a dictionary. Design without function and content is essentially ineffective and void of value beyond the trivial. In marketing we see this many times as advertising, void of one element or another, could easily fail to achieve the slightest motivation or call to action that they must certainly have been designed to do. We ask a few questions to get things rolling.

1. Why then do we see this failure to bring things together played out so often in nearly every facet of display or presentation type marketing practices?
2. Why then do people continue to kick aside conventional wisdom and focus on one element above all else?
3. What element is missing for the complete package?

A symphony with one conductor?
No symphony I've ever attended had more than one conductor. Each member of the symphony , proficient with his/her instrument, in concert with one another to bring about a heart moving melody with nearly hypnotic results only because they work together.

In design, many times we often joke that the one thing programmers are missing is a sense of design and visual structure. Programmers often say designers could care less if it works, so long as it looks pretty. And content writers take the middle road, often referring to both designers and coders as being ignorant of literary style and good typography practices. Do we need a referee or a ring master? I believe an intelligent conductor will do just fine.

When I agreed to take part in FamousAgents I was truly impressed with Jim Messengers "conductor" abilities in bringing the elements together in concert with one another to achieve a symphony of design. This all to often, frequently over looked facet of good design practice, is the reason we have so many sites that are either good designs and poor content, great content and down right ugly designs or a combination of both.

In their book (Web Redesign | Workflow that works) Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler outline several impressive examples of managing workflow from fundamental stages of design beginning at the foundation all the way to testing and usability analysis. A central theme is true of the book as chapter after chapter emphasize to some degree the need to manage each genera or discipline to work in concert with one another.

Fundamental to good design then is a qualified knowledgeable conductor who does not micro manage, but rather trusts, those who are expert at what they do to achieve the objective laid before them. Favoring not, one facet above all others as we move now to the individuals, the team players, the symphony. But lets close on this at the end.

* Naturally, we will expand on this in greater detail in the FamousAgents video tutorials and design threads.

The Lone Ranger!
Picasso once said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal" and in the world of design the notion of an original though is almost arrogance on behalf of the designer as experience will eventually reveal that each design is an inspiration of a previous work in some way. I've designed sites to look like post it boards and yet others to look like a photo album laid out on a table. Each design is unique in that its not a copy of another, but each is certainly the inspiration based on something else.

What does this have to do with our second question?
Well, its a long way of articulating a rigid mindset that all to often is easily offended yet arrogantly, remains under the belief that "I'm right, and you're not". True of coders, content writers and designers to some degree, leaving a project solely in the hands of either would demonstrate a slant in the final product which can easily have the appearance of a good and complete design because it is almost certainly inspired on something before it. At some point the design looks familiar to you because its inspired by something familiar. The functionality of the site looks familiar because in all honesty it was inspired by something familiar. And the articles make sense because they are inspired, fully unique in ideas, but familiar in structure.

Thus we conclude this thread on the introduction of fundamentals to a beautiful and functional web site. Now we move into finer points and touch on the differences between templates vs custom in design.

More to follow as I finish this thread as a work in progress..., Be sure to check out the tutorials as they become available.

~ Jared

[naplesrealestate]

Jared, excellent post. Wish someone had published some thing like your post years ago, before I gained a little knowledge about web sites.

In all honesty I am not an expert or claim to be close to an expert on web site design - actually my knowledge would probably fill the tip of the baby finger for some one like you.

I might be missing a point, but real estate agents need to be able to evaluate the "pro's" and "con's" of template vs custom, as well as, how to evaluate the route to the Utopian web site.

One of my personal goals is gain more knowledge and with people like Jim, Ken and yourself, I hope that I will be able to gain more. As the old saying goes "How can you soar with the eagles when you fly with turkeys."

Rather than another post - adding I am also looking forward to the rest of the articles.

[Jared Ritchey]

Thanks Glen, yes it was my goal in the 4 part series to inform as much as possible regarding the template vs custom design practices. I'll edit the post above for the few typographical errors and get the remaining parts published late today.

Originally Posted by naplesrealestate I might be missing a point, but real estate agents need to be able to evaluate the "pro's" and "con's" of template vs custom, as well as, how to evaluate the route to the Utopian web site.

To clarify a bit, as I mentioned, I'll be publishing the balance of the series on template vs custom very late today. I did the above at 1:40 in the morning after jumping in to answer some questions about the new program currently in its final beta.

Thank you for your encouraging feedback.

~ Jared

[Jim Messenger]

Jared, Great Job!

I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Jim

This was a really great read not only for agents but for designers as well. I think you brought up several key questions that need to be elaborated on a broader spectrum. Thats the first step, to get the mind going so that we can gain clearity between why you have to have functionality to aid design. Looking forward to more.

WOW! Jared I'm so glad I found this post after searching in google for answers to that question "Template vs Custom Designs" I have been considering the differences for almost 3 weeks and there is nothing on the subject that compares the differences. You clearly know what you are talking about in this post and I'm eager to know more about the differences, advantages, disadvantages.

I'm building a site for my parents who are Realtors and had considered buying a template from template monster. I'm curious if you think using templates from template monster is a good idea for a real estate site?

Your name always comes up at deviantart in chat rooms and I see you at daniweb and everyone seems to think that you are likely one of the best visual designers on the web but honestly I've never seen any of your work and I really want to. Do you have a portfolio we can look at? I did a search on your name and you take all the top 10 on google with only a few sites in the links.

Frustrating, what is the advantages or disadvantages to using templates? I have to make a decision very soon and any direction you would share is appreciated. my biggest thing is budget because my parents are old fashioned and have little faith in web sites.

Also how do I get my link in the bottom of the post like everyone else has?

Jill Osmond

[Jared Ritchey]

Welcome to FamousAgents.com Jill, I'll answer your questions first.

Rather than have me jump the gun and post the differences in this thread, you may want to check back later today as I start adding the differences between template vs custom to other posts under this heading.

As to your question about my portfolio. Yes, I have one but its not published. You ask if there are any sites that you could see regarding my work and the simple answer is yes. You have likely already seen my designs if you frequent the forums and sites related to the design circle, as 90% of all my work is not credited to me. There are likely 50 websites that I can recall today currently using templates that I've designed and then given away for free or offered up at relatively low prices. NOT THE NORM I guarantee.

The reason for this is simple yet somewhat private so I'll only say that I use to work for a very large template house until I set out on my own, which, unfortunately, this restricted me by rules of non-compete non-disclosure. Thus many template houses who sell templates via template clubs or on a per item basis hire me to design templates that they put thier name on. I simply provide the design, get paid, and casually watch how well it does. So I do a great deal of custom or semi custom usually in terms of modification of existing designs.

Now I will answer your question regarding template monster. They have a good product, and I'll be discussing them and others in subsequent posts, but you need to keep in mind that template monster follows the same format all good design companies follow and rather than reveal this proprietary technique I'll simply say that although the designs are attractive, the template monster templates are very hard to work with because they are almost entirely hard coded tabled layouts and tend to be very bulky.

You touch on "PRICE" in your decision process and yet again this will be a chategory in subsequent posts I'll make today so I'd like to reserve my comments for this until later.

You mention that your parents are old fashioned and not confident in the web. All I can say is if they are active in the development of their business and wish to see it grow and succeed then they need to spend time in this forum and learn from examples being taught herein. I've ran into this very same objection no less than 50% of the design cases I've solicited. Maybe Jim Messenger or other forum members would be willing to elaborate on this.

I will be publishing video tutorials on web design and management in comming days here on FamousAgents and I strongly suggest that you consider an extra week or two delay in your decision until you have had a chance to look through this site as it is growing rather fast.

~ Jared

[Jared Ritchey]

Originally Posted by realestatejill Also how do I get my link in the bottom of the post like everyone else has?

I'm not sure if you have to make a minimum post amount first or not, I'll check with Jim but usually you just go to the UserCP and simply edit your signature which is where people put the links to their sites.

~ Jared

[naplesrealestate]

Jill - just go to the CP and add your signature. It is fairly easy to do.

I have one of the monster template sites. A few years ago, I was called by a marketing rep for the company. I did have a custom(?) site that was costing me significantly (I still have it today) and wanted something where I could add information/content as I pleased. With the other site, I would be billed $20 for each page or form that I wanted to add to the site.

The template site's CP (control panel) offered me the ability to easily add content as I pleased. Maybe I should mention at this point that I am 58yo (not a spring chicken). My only experience with HTML was with AOLPRESS (probably not even available today). They had a good tutorial and I was able to do the basics. My template site, does reflect my amateur level of experience.

IMHO - monster template sites can have blotted code which will have a negative effect on your Search Engine Ranking Position (SERP). As the Internet evolves, the need to change your site is a prequisite - as with anything that is a monster, changes or enhancements may not be able to implemented as quickly as one would like or hope, due to restrictions by way the template is programmed.

I mentioned earlier my age, because your parents might be in my age bracket. I will tell you this though - when I got into real estate about 10 years ago - I could easily see what positive impact it could have on my business. My foresight was fairly accurate. The Internet can be frustrating at times, because it is a different way of doing business. Your parents are probably used to the face to face contact - sometimes I get e-mail from Mickey Mouse, etc., but I do respond. You never know who is on the other end of the e-mail, as I have learned.

Most real estate agents think, "if I have a website, then will come" - bad thinking. It takes a lot of work (hours) to get the website in the top positions for your keyword or keyword phrases. I have been as high as #2 for my keywords as well as buried in the 800's. IMHO it will take maybe 6 months before a site sees real traffic without some type of pay per click (PPC) or extensive keyword research to find the right keyword niches. One of the things real estate agents have been trained in (hopefully it has changed), is to concentrate on those buyers or sellers that are ready to do something right away. With the Internet prospects they do more research and take their time (this is frustrating for most real estate agents). However, if there is open and frank communication, the time spent with prospects can be significantly diminished.

IMHO - any real estate agent that is serious about their business needs to have a website. Maybe, the first question to be asked, especially with your parents, is - do they want a website as an online brochure or to generate more business. Also, can they adapt to dealing with Internet prospects. Sometimes, the basics need to be examined and thought about before getting a website.

Has there been any thoughts about starting with a template site and then moving the domain to a custom site after your parents have had some experience with the Internet? This comes from the mention that cost is a consideration.

Just my personal thoughts from off the top of my head.

[naplesrealestate]

Originally Posted by realestatejill Also how do I get my link in the bottom of the post like everyone else has? Jill Osmond

Jill - Jared is correct you can add your signature by going to the CP - it is fairly easy - even I was able to do it.