The phrase that shouldn't surprise me as a Wix Studio website designer

Years back I was doing contract work for a larger design agency who had brought me on to develop a project because I had Wix experience, and their team did not. The first time I showed them the progress of the site the designer said "oh, it doesn't look like Wix at all" - I remember laughing and saying "no, it looks like the design you gave me, that was the brief" but the number of times I have heard an iteration of this phrase over the past seven years still floors me.

Now before you turn away, this is not a "which platform is better" article, I have no interest in having that discussion, because there is no correct answer. There is however a misconception out there that the platform you use will 'show' and while there are absolutely examples that have fed this misconception, the truth is the platform is a tool that, if used correctly, shouldn't influence the design of your website.

The sewing machine that the seamstress uses, does not change the look of the dress they are making. It's a tool used to create the final product, but it shouldn't impact the design of it.

So what is my actual point, I hear you ask, which is a valid question.

The platform question you should be asking

When you are looking for a website designer, or a studio to work with for your new website, yes by all means, ask the platform question. But this should be coming from a functionality point of view, rather than a design worry.

For the majority of websites the difference between built well, and not, is little to do with the platform it is built on and much more to do with how it is built. If you need eCommerce functionality, speak to your developer about that. Ask them what size stores they have worked on, find out where their expertise lies.

Where the "looks like <insert platform here>" worry actually comes from

The reason that people worry about their website looking like the platform it was built on is normally because of templates. Templates are not inherently bad, but they are templates, by their very nature, they follow a set layout and, at times a set design.

There is a time and place for using templates, they are a great entry point. And more often than not websites feel like the template they are based on when the brand itself did not have a visual identity to begin with. If you are relying on a template to create a specific look and feel, that's when you run into issues.

Templates aren't the problem. Outsourcing your brand identity is.

A template will conveniently fill in the gaps for you. If you haven't done the work of knowing what your brand actually looks like, sounds like, stands for, a template doesn't wait around for you to figure it out, it just makes those decisions on your behalf. Meaning the end result can often feel disjointed, not inherently you.

That's the part that shows. Not the platform. The absence of a brand behind it.

So what should show?

Here's the actual point, seven years and one memorable phone call later (ok fine, more than one): no matter what your website is built on, and no matter whether you start from a template or a blank page, it should look like your brand. Not the software it's built on, and not the studio who designed it.

If you're reading this before you've properly worked out what that even looks like, that's alright, most people are. But it's worth knowing that's the conversation to be having before you sit down with a designer, not the platform one. Ask about functionality. Ask about experience. But the "does it look like Wix" question was never really about Wix.

If you're about to start that process and don't know where to start, the more useful conversation is the strategy one. What does the site actually need to do, and who is it for. That's usually where I start.

{ Veronica }