Swimming against the tide
If you are going to be designing websites, one question that you will not escape is buying templates (unless you are of course writing your own code.) As a designer who has basically had to learn everything the hard way, I now have an idea about what I should consider when choosing a site to buy templates. This is what I will be looking at below:
- Support
You may wonder why I did not begin with the more technical aspects. Well, I can tell you from experience that support is vital. When I talk about support, I am referring to two types: pre-sale and after-sale.
There are sites that are great at pre-sale support, but as soon as you buy their product, reaching them is well, a nightmare. Other sites will have very complicated ways to reach support. Worse still, it may take days for them to respond.
A win for me? A site with an online chat option. Better still, with short waiting times.
Making a phone call is also a good idea if you are within the same country.
Email support is also quite a slow method for support. It may take days for your email to be responded to (especially if you are buying from a different country).
2. Template Design
This basically refers to how the templates look. Well, this point can be seen from a different viewpoint. Graphics and videos have to do a lot with making the template to come alive. Templates with high quality photos will look great.
My argument would be then, should you go for a template that looks awesome? Or should you look at the features? After all, it's the content that you will use (whether text, graphics or video that will make the site come alive). This brings me to the next point.
3. 'Editability'
To a large extent, template features will be determined by the type of project that you are handling. The elephant in the room becomes what you can or not do with the template.
After identifying a template, read the documentation first (especially before you buy it). I learnt this from experienced web designers. Some sites do quite a poor job at documentation, though. At first, you may not understand all the technical jargon, but with persistence, consulting and a bit of educating yourself, you will be good to go.
Reading the documentation will help you see the small details that will make or break your site.
All in All
Life is a series of processes. I can tell you for a fact that reading about something is different from actually doing it. God is in the details. All the same, I hope you found this information helpful. If so, like share and comment (or inbox me on LinkedIn for a chat).