© Copyright 2003 by BasicTips.com, division of BasicTemplates.com
What exactly is a cookie-cutter layout?
If you have been designing websites for any length of time, you
have likely run into this terminology. In most cases it is a term
used to describe predesigned web templates. Generally, the person
using this terminology is promoting their own product or service
and is trying to sway your intuitive logic toward a mind-set that
will benefit them even when it isn't to your advantage. What do
I mean?
If you are up for a challenge, I'll give you one that will blow
the lid off the cookie jar in regard to the term "cookie-cutter"
layouts. Hey, someone has to tell the truth, so why not us?
Are you ready? Go to any web page on any web site. If you want
to stir the cookie-batter bowl a bit, go to a web page created
by someone who discourages the use of cookie-cutter designs and
save the page to your hard drive. [ File > Save As ]
Now open this page into your HTML editor and strip it clean of
all graphics, css, Javascript, etc.
What's left? Well, if you said HTML code, you would be right.
Web page layouts are in fact just HTML code. They are the structure
of your web page's design. Everything else within a web page is
simply cosmetic (graphics/css) or interactivity functions (scripts).
The truth is that regardless of whether you use a predesigned
web template or develop your own design from scratch, there are
only so many ways to effectively layout your web page's structure,
no matter how you slice or dice it.
Try this challenge on a dozen or so websites and you will find
that you are left with mostly HTML tables that may or may not
be nested and all of them are very similar.
So are your ready for the truth? The truth is that ALL web sites'
layouts are indeed cookie-cutter (if you want to use that terminology)
regardless of whether you start with a web template or create
your own website from scratch. But then your intuitive logic already
told you that, right? You also likely saw through the transparent
marketing technique of those who tout against the use of web templates.
If you try this challenge and you are not left with pure HTML
code, then the structure of the web site you analyzed is likely
not effective for a diverse group of traffic. An example would
be a site that was designed with pure CSS. For more information
about pure CSS, read our article, "Should
you Use CSS-P (Table-Less Layouts) on Your Web Site?".
If you didn't know this, don't fret. Now you know the truth and
as Paul Harvey would say, "... the rest of the story." So now
what? As a web designer or a webmaster, you really only have three
logical choices.
1. You can develop your own HTML layouts with graphics and spend
many hours doing it.
2. You can purchase web templates that are basic (BasicTemplates.com)
and which were built correctly with External Cascading Style Sheets
and which many have the ability to swap out graphics, if you wish.
This saves you tons of time which in turn saves you money. BasicTemplates
designs can merely be a time-saving starting point or your site's
entire, final design.
3. You can purchase web templates that box you in to using one
design layout at a high-end price. What do I mean? BasicTemplates.com
is currently the ONLY web template design site that provides designs
utilizing external CSS and swap-out capabilities. These concepts
quickly enable you to change your website's cosmetics (colors/fonts/graphics/etc)
within seconds to change your site's theme or appearance at either
no additional cost to you or for a small fee (if you purchase
our graphics packages). BasicTemplates were strategically designed
in this manner from the first day we developed our designs. Therefore,
we were thinking outside of the design box and giving YOU the
design freedom you deserve at a fee affordable to everyone regardless
of your country of origin.
Is this article just another marketing sales pitch? Yes and no.
Yes, because we are only once again explaining the sheer advantage
of using a BasicTemplates.com design which could be defined by
the perspective of some folks as a marketing tactic. No, because
intuitively you already knew that the "cookie-cutter" terminology
you may have read about defies web technology logic.
I'll leave you then with one final, entertaining thought. ;)
"Use a BasicTemplates.com design to step outside of that narrow
design box. Then sweep those cookie crumbs into the recycle bin
where all crumbs really belong."
© Copyright 2003 by BasicTips.com, division of BasicTemplates.com
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