Unfortunately, creating personal website isn’t an easy task. There are things that we need to take into consideration, such as usability, scan-ability, easy downloading of content, professional layout, clean coding, strategically designed links, easy navigation and so on. By properly integrating these factors, we should be able to separate our website into a professional one. So, we should be able to define how our website is designed. The most common option we do is by hiring web designers. We should be able to make sure that websites are coded into perfection and looks professional.
We should also consider time factors and costs. This is the situation where templates always come to the rescue. Web templates are essentially pre-designed, semi-finished web design that can be modified and customized according to our preferences. We should be able to create websites in less time. They include embedded code and it is possible to replace logos and pictures according to our requirements. Because they are semi-finished, these templates can’t be used as it is. There are certain elements that we need to add, improve and change to make templates more usable.
When customizing web templates, we need to change company logo, images, tags, footer, header, page titles, page content and links. These templates should be ready to be modified with specific files and mechanisms, like sign up and user management processes. Many templates are free, but others are available commercially. Depending on the design quality, complexity and features, commercial web templates may be available between $10 to $1,000. So, instead of designing our website from scratch, we could allocate our money to purchase a web template.
However, we still need to hire web development professionals, because templates are not finished products. However, the time needed to complete the project should be much shorter. It should be noted that the features that are included could differ from seller to seller, depending on the price and requirements. PSD files, separate CSS codes and font files should be included with the template. They could be used and modified based on our preferences. There are also other files provided, such as ReadMe files and .js files if these webpages require JavaScript technology. These templates are usually delivered in compressed format and we should make sure that they are organized in proper folders.
If we purchase commercial templates with exclusive rights, we should be aware that they can’t be given or resold to other people. We pay for our usage rights, so it is a bad idea to give these files to other people. Non-exclusive templates are usually cheaper, but we get only partial usage rights. It means that template designers will sell it to different users. We still can’t resell the template, but we are not the unique user. We may not be allowed to modify the template thoroughly, unlike with templates that have full usage rights. As an example, PSD files allow us to make comprehensive changes to specific graphics elements and generate appropriate images using Adobe Photoshop.
