Introduction: Outline of our context

In most of our articles, we will restrict ourselves to a specific part of the website, namely the graphical appearance, viewable by all visitors. Even if the ergonomics of a website can affect its appearance and style, we will deal with it as if it were completely independent for simplicity and relevance of discourse.

Currently the "Web 2.0" is the dominant model of the web. It is characterized by rich and varied content written mainly by users themselves (this is often called User Generated Content or UGC). The major players in the web are no longer large corporations that would use Internet only as a supplementary channel to their existing media channels, but the vendors of native Web platforms, coming mostly from the computer industry ( Google, Yahoo, Microsoft ...). The Internet user now has access a wide range of free and paying services to express his ideas, react to news or find information about his interests. Methods to diffuse content on the Web have become simpler and easier during the past 15 years. It is indeed no longer necessary to be technically-savvy to broadcast information on the Internet.

1. Web design has not benefited from the rapid evolution of Internet technology

Let us briefly recall that the website is divided into two separate parts, what will call the container (style, theme and layout) and the content , which can be text, images, videos, music, etc... The so called "Web 2.0" has seen the emergence and rapid development of CMS technologies (Content Management Systems), which simplify the editing and updating of content directly by users themselves (Wikipedia being the perfect example). Blogging and microblogging platforms (Blogger, Tumblr, Twitter ...) allow people to add information on the Web from anywhere with an Internet connection or mobile phone coverage. But during this rapid shift from a Web content provided by big business to  a content written mainly by users, the container (the visual theme), has seen relatively few improvements.

The management of pre-made templates has evolved, but we are still far away from the convenience that publishing systems provide for content. Custom design as proposed by professional web agencies is still based on the methodologies of pre-computer graphics: creation of a  sketch, specification of functionality, implementation of the model, corrections, integration and deployment, etc.. If this methodology is still popular with large corporations with a slow decision process, it is completely unadapted to the vast majority of Web 2.0 users who require quick results, simple modifications, and a very low cost. The differentiation between content and container is very important because in actual fact the term applies to the content of 2.0 but not to the container.

This difference of technological progress is paradoxical given that a site's design contributes directly to its attractiveness: beautiful, well presented sites have a better visibility on the Internet. A creative design is especially important to distinguish oneself when there are already dozens of similar sites treating the exact same subject.

2 - The two main methods for authoring a website's design: selection from a template catalog or custom development

Templates are currently the most popular way of sticking a theme to an website, since it has the enormous advantage of providing very quickly a decent design. The user can choose from a variety of lists. The major drawback is that we rarely find what we really need, unless we spend the time going through a huge number of choices (which can take a considerable amount of time, since templates - free or not - are disseminated all over the Web). Using a template ultimately means that you will get the same design than your neighbours, who have access to the same library than you do. While this may be fine to start a site, this will look very unprofessional once your audience grows. Finally, most templates also only work on a given platform (WordPress, Blogger, Joomla...) and are not portable to other solutions. Thus, an user who has a regular website, a blog, a forum and an e-commerce store will have to find four different templates, and will have a hard time make them match each other.

Custom design is the flagship solution for large groups that need to ensure their brand image is respected. The customers opting for custom development will be sure to get the dress that suits them. Unfortunately, this method is clearly too expensive for the vast majority of Internet users. This is also impossible for a large scale platform with hundreds of thousands of blogs or websites.
In addition, the underlying methodology advocated by custom web designers is totally outdated (it is the same than the one used for traditional print magazines design). There are a lots of steps, and at each one, validation from the customer is mandatory. It is a lengthy process. Maintenance and updates are also problematic, especially if the designers do not work in house: sometimes a very simple change needs to be made urgently, but the designer is unavailable!

Often people settle for an intermediate solution, a compromise: start from an existing template, and adapting it  to its own wishes. The results do not always live up to expectations, but it still compresses costs significantly by reusing existing elements. The web agencies save a lot of time since they don't have to create a new design from scratch.

3 - New emerging methods addressing unmet needs

Along these traditional processes, new methods for "dressing" websites emerged. Loosely based on the features of CMS, these technologies attempt to simplify the customization of the web page. For instance, we can cite Artisteer, Wix or Kameleoon. It is interesting to note that the approaches are totally different from each other (offline for the first, Flash for the second, or generic and online for the third). This is evidence that this aspect of web design has not yet been well explored, and that not many people are actually interested in this crucial feature of CMS. Obviously the DMS (Design Management Systems) have not taken off yet.

Conclusion: the container's ease of use will have to progress in the near future

Graphics are essential to the presentation of any content, particularly on the Internet where it is crucial to distinguish itself in the face of a plethora of freely available information. Unlike the significant progresses experienced by the publishing and sharing of content on the Web in recent years, the container, the web design, has not evolved much. Old methodologies, where mostly offline tools are used and a high degree of technical knowledge is needed, still prevail: there has not been any innovative approach in this area. To attain the same level of convenience than CMS systems such as WordPress or Joomla bring to mainstream Web users, it is  necessary to rethink the approaches currently used for authoring web designs. Some small players have started to tackle this field, but they currently lack visibility. In a context of strong pressure, it will be essential for the current major web corporations, as well as new competitors, to identify the actual innovations in this domain and integrate them to their own solutions to maintain their attractiveness.