why design from scratch
…
when copy/paste will suffice.
That “making a professional website has never been easier”, is
unquestionable as we write latter half of 2020. That is as expected after about 25 years with web designs, and
development of tools and standards for same.
Readymade templates and “design inspirations” are found all over the internet, and recognizable
bits and pieces bought and/or borrowed from these are found on most commercial and private web sites.
Millions of individual and (to some degree) uniquely designed websites, make up the “traditional” segment of the world wide web.

When I read articles containing latest web design trend evaluations, they too
tend to come through as copy/paste works from years past, with minor rewrites.
That is of course not the least surprising, as there are only so many ways to reach the same goals as was aimed for in years past. And, web
designers/developers have not changed much in what we want and how we want it, since back when we could not make any of it work
without applying some serious hacking and workarounds across browserland just to get somewhat close…
One reason for the reduced focus on unique appearance and more on what to copy/paste from a limited number
of templates and sources of inspiration, may be the wide range of screens websites have
to be tailored for. What has worked for others for the last few years, may be the safest options today also – better safe than sorry.
Besides; “sameness” have to a large degree overtaken “uniqueness” as sales pitch, as “standing out” may easily lead to
“being left out” among sites trying to cater for the same audience. Again; what has worked for
others…
Increasingly higher resolution on screens allow for enough “freedom to design” to satisfy most artists' need for canvases to create visual illusions on as covers for the functionality needed to run businesses.
more of a good thing cannot be bad?
I am not hired by anyone to be a judge of web design solutions. I am just old enough in the game – from way back when IE6's reign peaked across browserland – to have observed it all before, and am also stupid enough to write what's on my mind – borderline hazardous in today's climate regardless of area.
Maybe I am also too stupid, or behind, to notice all the minute details and unique touches that make one website so much more
attractive and user-friendly than those other sites, apart from the fact that those same “details and unique touches” (if
anyone in the biz thinks they are any good) can be found everywhere in no time.
No big deal really, as I mostly consume sites as end-user these days, and am no longer occupied with making other than my
own sites work as intended.
Superlatives to describe individual sites' superiority may still have some effect. But, end-users have been
exposed to the same type of inflated writings about everything everywhere for so long that they quit noticing – same as
we develop a form for blindness to advertisement.
On the other hand; those sites, advertisers, and critics, that try to remedy the situation, risk being ignored
and lose out because they do not follow the trends. Thus, few will go those routes and deviate from the main streams.
The above isn't meant in a negative way, but nearly 20 years in the business have told me that few outside the trade itself, or involved in projects one way or another, pay much attention to details unless something in a given design becomes too irritating to ignore … like I always leave sites with unrequested popups that cover stuff I'm focusing on at the moment.
Before anybody notice the entire world wide web may have gone the way of commercial TV. That is:
most channels present the same as most others most of the time, and repeat most of it n(n) times before starting all over
again.
And, despite hardly any of it being worth our time – not even the first time, most will surf through again and again in (futile) hope
of finding something worthwhile.
from a to z, and back again
Back in time many turned the release of a new site-design into a big happening of sort. These days that is more rare, and such events can now often best be likened with showing off what one had for breakfast on social media – not such big a deal.
The natural up-and-down-and-around cycles that affects web design as well as pretty much all else in our societies, where all new gets
classified as “old” pretty quickly, and what was old and outdated a while ago comes back in fasion again,
seem to speed up.
If I am to predict anything, it may be that visual trends will come and go so fast that the waves of change become blury and all will
be “in” and “out” of fashion simultaneously, depending more or less on what time of day it is and who
one is asking.
Everything is relative, and our digital experience seems to go into overdrive and cause addiction and loss of
attention. Whether or not that is a good thing for the human race, is not for me to answer.
In time use of entire toolsets and standards, including HTML
/CSS
as we know it,
will die off and something new will take over. Nothing lasts forever on the internet.
homegrown…
I do of course use templates to populate this and other sites I'm in control of, but only the “homemade” variants: made from scratch by myself and later adorned with inspirations from everywhere on and off the net. Now that I officially have quit working as troubleshooter for others and have entered retirement, it is all for fun and recreation and may evolve in any direction.
As hobby philately could have been an alternative, but HTML
/CSS
works fine in that respect,
for now.
Whatever the future brings, hacking IE6 was great fun while it
lasted.
sincerely
Hageland 08.sep.2020
last rev: 10.sep.2020