You may or may not have heard the term, ‘brochure website’ or know what it means, but having viewed countless sites over the years, and I do mean countless, it appears that many web designers do not. A brochure website is exactly what it says it is, a means of showing off your company, products and services. Why do web designers insist on producing the garbage that consistently seems to be regurgitated? Many web developers use template designs using Microsoft Front Page. A word of advice, don't! It's rubbish!

I have a theory, and it might upset some of you, but this is my opinion as someone with many years of experience in both marketing, strategy and web design. There are two parts to why we believe so many websites are designed at a substandard.

Firstly, many freelance web designers are simply techies with coding skills but almost no design ability. Any good web agency will have two unique teams, a creative team and a development team. After all, do you really think that Henrik Fisker and Ian Callum (who have been responsible for creating many of the latest Aston Martins and are currently, the Director of Design at Fisker Coachbuild and Jaguar respectively) built the engine for the dazzling DB9 as well as designing its sleek shape. Of course not, they are qualified Industrial and Vehicle Designers and leave the engine design and development to more qualified people. Just as if the engine specialists at Aston Martin were also the designers, then the DB9 may have looked a lot more like a Ford transit.

Secondly, web designers are all too eager to please their clients. Now do not get me wrong, clients should and do come first. They know their businesses and have often a strong idea about what features they want to appear in their own sites. However, they all too often decide they know what is best for the design of their website. When I bought my car (you might have worked out I have a bit of an obsession by now) I did not go into the dealer and say I like it, but can you change the design? Yes by all means ask for a different colour scheme and ‘optional extras’ such as a call back facility, but far too often do clients forget that in most web design agencies, the creative team is made of professionals and qualified experts, or at least should be.

Freelance web developers need to begin outsourcing design work, and clients need to pay more attention to the people they hired to do a job. If these things happen, then hopefully the future of web design will not be so grim.