Aug 30 2010
I've said it before and I'll say it again – templates or "themes" for a business website are a failure before they get implemented. I've stated why in the past, but there's one reason that I have barely touched on: content.
When a designer/developer or team of designers/developers creates a site for a business, large or small, there's one thing that is always, always going to be different on each site: the content. And for any site to be successful, the content needs to be well organized and clear. A site should fit around the content, not the other way around.
Picking out a pre-built theme waters the message down by forcing the content to fit into a predefined template that was built on some designer's whim and fancy. It does little for your brand, let alone the message you're trying to get across. This is why there is so much planning and stages like information architecture long before any design is created during the web design process.
That doesn't mean the design doesn't matter. It absolutely does. But good, effective design doesn't come by designing in the dark, making assumptions about the content that will go on a site. The content shapes the direction of the design in order to communicate as effectively as possible.
No, your content needs to be more important than that if you plan on actually reaping any return on your site. It should be the star of the show with the design supporting it. To say that you can stick your content anywhere the template dictates is like saying any ol' marketing strategy will work for any business. BS.