How To Choose A Website Template

Apr 15th, 07 | 1 remark

With website templates growing in popularity, many professional looking designs are now available for purchase (or even free) that previously were not. To those who don’t necessarily know a lot about design, this is a clear benefit. As much fun as it may be to browse through these designs, it may not however, be easy to choose or customize one. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind while shopping…

1. Purpose, Above All

Are you putting together an artistic site… an informative site… a storefront? This is the most basic question you should already have an answer to. Depending on the intent behind your site, you may have a lot or very little flexibility in the choice of design.

For example, if your site is promoting your own artwork, then a creative layout with a lot of room for images or a slideshow might be just the thing you want. However if you’re putting together a site that will be selling products or providing information, you’re better off choosing a template that has minimal flare factor.

The idea is to focus first on content (as opposed to eye-candy). Unless you’re a musician or a photographer, avoid a Flash template. You’ll have a better shot with the search engines without one. Another point to keep in mind, Flash sites are more complicated to work with, take longer to load in a browser, and are tedious to update. I do not recommend choosing a Flash template, tempting as it is.

2. Consider the Layout

Ask yourself how well the layout of your favored template will fit your content needs. Does your site require a large navigation system? Will you have a lot of text-heavy pages? If so, make sure the template can accommodate your content.
Some templates may look beautiful, but are functionally challenging to work with. If a template is too graphics-intensive, or looks as though it was designed using many nested tables, it’s better to keep searching. Table-based layouts consume a lot of bandwidth and are usually time consuming to update.

The interior pages of a template are also a consideration, as they can differ from the home page layout. Consider also how easy (or difficult) it may be to make changes to the interior pages in addition to your index page. Interior pages often house different content than what an index page is intended to serve. How well does the layout of your selected template fit with your goals for the site?

3. Usability is Key

Many designers would tell you to consider this first, but usability in this case refers to ease of use for you, the template buyer… not the end user who browses your site. Usability in its normal context should definitely be a factor in the plan for your site of course, but the first hurdle to clear is whether or not YOU will be able to use/modify the template without a degree in rocket science.

Keep in mind, you’ll never find a “perfect fit” template. The only website that will exactly fit your needs is one that is custom designed specifically for you or your business. You should be able to find something very close, however, and that’s why it’s necessary to determine in advance (if you can) the level of skill which will be required to edit your chosen template.

4. Don’t Dismiss Color

The fun part… your color scheme. Color has a significant impact on the mindset of your visitors, and the scheme you choose should fit well with your field of business, product or logo. It should also be engaging, yet easy on the eyes, with colors that compliment each other.

If you find a template that has the perfect layout, and fits with your theme, but does not have the colors you’re looking for, that’ a fairly easy fix, particularly if it’s CSS-based. You can also manipulate the colors after downloading the working (otherwise known as layered, or master) file from within Photoshop.

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Tags: planning