Are unique looking websites necessarily the best way to go ?

Ever get that feeling of Déjà vu that you've seen an almost identical website somewhere before ?  Well you may not being imagining it.  Some clever business are saving time and money through templated designs.  I'll explain ...

I got a wierd sense of Déjà vu the other day whilst looking through our company's website statistics.  Web stats can give you some valuable information about your website's marketing performance, but it can also occasionally reveal some suprises.  Through our site stats, I was shocked to discover that a (very amateur) web developer in Peru, apparently for one of their customers sites, had used not only most of our website design, but our content as well !

Fortunately for us, we were in the process of developing a new site for ourselves.  We didn't change our website because it was terrible, just because our business and marketing messages had evolved over time (which is something we'd advise anyone company to do on a regular basis).  But it never feels good to think that your team's tireless work opportunistically capitalised on by someone else somewhere else in the world.

While we haven't got the time or energy to pursue legal action on this one (this is certainly not an open invitation this time as we definately would in different circumstances), I have no doubt that this costs our industry many thousands of dollars and unlike other industries where copyright theft is rampant there is little we can do to stop it.  I suppose in some perverse way you could see it as some kind of compliment.  Afterall, if our website was terrible, who would want to use its design ?  But on this occasion, had they just notified us and sending a few dollars our way, we'd be less reluctant to part with the uniqueness of our site.  A professional e-busines company like Datalink are not in competition with some dodgy backyard outfit from Peru.  

And this is not the first (or I suspect the last) time that this has happened.  In the past, we have had other sites that we have built also blatantly ripped off and where we have found out, we have advised action to be taken.  Unlike us, our customers invest real money to make their websites look unique and it doesn't make sense to if someone else out there gets a near identical site for free.

Take a peek around our portfolio and you can see the fruits of our customers efforts to have their websites completely custom designed by Datalink.  This enables them not only to have a unique look, but to service their business needs.   It is not just visuals, but consulting, information architecture and content design which are important in ensuring their success.  All this can be costly and while this is essential for many corporations, it is not essential to every company. 

While we can question the value of customised web design, and make arguments for it, there is much to be said for a tried and proven design formula.  Afterall, why reinvent the wheel ?  Some industries have similar needs.  Browse the majority of Victorian local government websites (our own designs aside) and you'd swear that you were looking at identical copies with "insert your council logo here".  Maybe if it is good enough for these big government departments, then it could be ok for some of the rest of us.

The bottom line is that some businesses are saving many thousands of dollars as well as saving time in the decision making and implementation processes - all by using pre-built design templates for their websites.    So naturally it is something that any company should give due consideration.  But what exactly is involved ?  Well, I'll let you in on it.

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