Should I spend the time to create a custom design?

[built]

So I’m running on default-ish at the moment. Looks good but doesn’t look big brand/have its own personality.

I’ve mocked up a design, just wondering if it’s worth coding now or should I just keep focusing on content.

I know @CCarter says not to waste time redesigning again, but I’m not happy with the current feel of the site. Since it’s pretty default looking.

Edit: This is probably a dumb question

 

[bernard]

How are your engagement and on-site metrics?

Those are what I would look at. Do you get social shares and likes on your own. If not, then I would consider a change. I think there's a lot of sites with old and defunct design but a passionate userbase. On the other hand, I have also seen sites mimic quality by design alone. I will default to my answer, do you get engagement or not?

Maybe someone more experience can give their opinon?

 

[built]

How are your engagement and on-site metrics?

Those are what I would look at. Do you get social shares and likes on your own. If not, then I would consider a change. I think there's a lot of sites with old and defunct design but a passionate userbase. On the other hand, I have also seen sites mimic quality by design alone. I will default to my answer, do you get engagement or not?

Maybe someone more experience can give their opinon?

I haven't started driving traffic yet, so no engagement. Just don't like the default feel at the moment, because once I start link building I want everything to be perfect so it goes easier

 

[Sutra]

So I’m running on default-ish at the moment. Looks good but doesn’t look big brand/have its own personality.

I’ve mocked up a design, just wondering if it’s worth coding now or should I just keep focusing on content.

I know @CCarter says not to waste time redesigning again, but I’m not happy with the current feel of the site. Since it’s pretty default looking.

Edit: This is probably a dumb question

Sounds like you are procrastinating.

 

[built]

Sounds like you are procrastinating.

Yup, I realized that as soon as I posted the thread.

 

[Ryuzaki]

The reality is that design matters. First impressions matter. Engagement optimization matters. Conversions rate optimization matters. Design defines the brand.

But do you have a brand yet? Do you have stats to optimize off of yet?

That's the difference people are getting at here. You don't have the data to guide the decisions yet, therefore you'd be working on the wrong thing. But it's not just that. You don't have any eyeballs to impress yet either.

Big brands and new companies backed by people with money will often roll out with a refined and complete design on day one, but they can afford the labor to put it together and they aren't losing time on it because it's occurring in parallel with content and product development, social media management, etc.

I think it's a legitimate question and concern, though. In my main case study here, I spent a couple months I think banging out my design, but it also involved things like site architecture. And I've touched those things every few months for the past 3 years. I just feel like I laid the finishing touches last week, to be honest. Because things only become clearer the further you get down the path.

You have to know who you are and how your mind works. I really struggle with having 'open loops.' If the design is sitting at 90% of what I want it to be, then that last 10% eats up my RAM and drains my battery until it's done. That's why I tackled design and architecture first, then moved to pounding out tons of content. Then I moved to off-site SEO concerns. Now it's a matter of rotating through content and promotion. I had to whittle it down to the fewest components possible so my brain wouldn't explode.

And, as we've both said, the first impressions count and matter once you start interacting with people. If you look professional, you will be accepted as professional. That will propagate out to the number of links, shares, mentions, purchases, time spent on site, and more.

You've said you were procrastinating. That doesn't mean all work on design is procrastinating. It just means it is for you at this time. It'll be worth your time to return to eventually when the time is right. For me, I had to get my first iteration of design done first. For you, maybe that comes later. Just depends on the person and the order of operations and whether you feel the need to test a minimum viable product or not, etc.

 

[built]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I took some time to think about it, and I’ve decided I’m going to write at least 1000 words of content before I spend the rest of the day on the design.

That way I can do both and I’m not procrastinating about writing content.

My problem is I can easily spend hours on design but then never complete the posts I planned to write, so I think this will be an effective strategy for now

 

[Cash Builder]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I took some time to think about it, and I’ve decided I’m going to write at least 1000 words of content before I spend the rest of the day on the design.

That way I can do both and I’m not procrastinating about writing content.

My problem is I can easily spend hours on design but then never complete the posts I planned to write, so I think this will be an effective strategy for now

This is a great strategy and it's one that I have started using recently. Do the task that is your least favorite first, and then you can go about the rest of your tasks without the thought of doing something you don't want to do niggling in the back of your mind.

My least favorite task is writing content. It is also one of the most important but I was doing everything else first, and then it gets to the point where I am like 'I'll just do it tomorrow'. Tomorrow comes and the same thing happens, suddenly it's two months later and I've not written any content at all.

Now I make sure the first thing I do every day is write some content. It doesn't matter if it's 100 words or 2000 words, if I have written something then the rest of the day is more relaxed and there is not as much pressure because I feel like I have achieved one of my main goals.

 

[turbin3]

I really struggle with having 'open loops.' If the design is sitting at 90% of what I want it to be, then that last 10% eats up my RAM and drains my battery until it's done.

I feel you on that!

The real trick is figuring out when you've met a threshold of "good enough". Especially when building something you care about and want to invest in. I suffer from this pretty badly myself. Perfectionism is a hell of a drug.

What I try to do though is take a few competitors, and benchmark core design factors across their sites. Structural stuff like header, nav, footer. Content elements, layout. Functionality such as like, share, submit. Also take note of any major deficiencies. Just get the high level stuff, and focus on fulfilling those. All the little stuff like animations, transitions, or other CSS stuff might be nice, but not usually a high value thing most sites absolutely need to get going. Pretty much Bootstrap template and go live kind of gets the job done a lot of times.

 

[built]

I feel you on that!

The real trick is figuring out when you've met a threshold of "good enough". Especially when building something you care about and want to invest in. I suffer from this pretty badly myself. Perfectionism is a hell of a drug.

What I try to do though is take a few competitors, and benchmark core design factors across their sites. Structural stuff like header, nav, footer. Content elements, layout. Functionality such as like, share, submit. Also take note of any major deficiencies. Just get the high level stuff, and focus on fulfilling those. All the little stuff like animations, transitions, or other CSS stuff might be nice, but not usually a high value thing most sites absolutely need to get going. Pretty much Bootstrap template and go live kind of gets the job done a lot of times.

Do you think it’s bad to copy elements of successful competitors? Will it create a site that looks like “just another fitness blog” for example.

That’s what I’m trying to avoid, I want to stand out

 

[Steve]

"I've been following this 30 day challenge on builtsnewwebsite.com - the workouts are pretty mediocre but hot damn the website is beautiful" said nobody ever.

Get it good enough. Looking like your (successful) competitors is an excellent place to be for now.

 

[CCarter]

If this exact topic is within the crash course - literally verbatim, you should assume we’ve gone through this phase thousands of times over years/decades.

The reality is the only people that care about website design are website designers. You know everytime I got criticized about my websites’ design those people never turned into customers and never actually intended on becoming customers. How many customers do you think I actually lost cause my corners were sharp instead of the latest fad of “rounded corners” - Give me a break. As long as the website works decently, the search function is working, the navigation is easy to follow you are good to go - people will sign up and generate you revenue.

Are you here to make a pretty website or make money? “Won’t a pretty website make me more money?” The answer is no. You can hire a website designer down the road when you have revenue coming in.

Think about how much foresight we needed to have to create this exact topic in the crash course. We know what kills projects in their tracks, redesigning the website is one of them.

It is procrastination.

You already know the right answer, if you want to contradict it than you’ll be having this same conversation on your next project.

If you haven’t had success doing something your way this whole time, why not try doing it the way of someone who’s had success?

 

[built]

If you haven’t had success doing something your way this whole time, why not try doing it the way of someone who’s had success?

Very true, I think I need to stop being so stubborn about these things. Because I'm not getting anywhere. I will say when I was getting traffic, design was the last thing on my mind.