Can a website be built without a design team?

Having a website has become a fundamental necessity for entrepreneurs and creatives. However, many face the problem of not having the time or not having professionals in the field to do it. In light of this, the question arises: Is it possible to create an attractive and functional website without relying on a professional design team? The answer is a resounding yes.In this guide, we will explain how current tools and platforms have democratized the website creation process, allowing even those new to design to build their online presence confidently and successfully in a short amount of time and with minimal effort.

From choosing the right platform to implementing basic design principles, we will show you step by step how you can develop your website without the need for a specialized design team, bringing your digital vision to life.

The evolution of website creation: from experts to beginners

The world of web design has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent decades. Previously, building a website was a complex process that required advanced knowledge of coding and graphic design.

Only designers and web developers with technical skills could undertake this task. However, this dynamic has changed drastically.

With the advent of website creation platforms such as HubSpot and WordPress, creating a website has become accessible to everyone. These tools have simplified the process, eliminating the need for deep knowledge.

Now, with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, anyone can design a professional website without having to write a single line of code.

In addition, these platforms not only offer ease of use but also a variety of pre-designed templates and themes. This means you can choose a design that aligns with your vision and customize it according to your preferences, without the need for a graphic designer.

The templates are versatile, adapting to various types of websites, from personal blogs and portfolios to online stores and corporate sites.

This shift in website creation has democratized online presence, allowing businesses, entrepreneurs, and creatives to launch their websites with less investment of time and resources.

Web design is no longer exclusive to experts; it is now a skill accessible to everyone, thanks to these innovative tools.

Advantages of creating a website without a design team

Deciding to build your website without a professional design team may seem challenging at first, but this approach offers several significant advantages:

Cost Efficiency

One of the most obvious benefits is the cost reduction of a website. By not having to hire web designers and developers, you can save a considerable amount of money, especially beneficial for small businesses and entrepreneurs with limited budgets.

You only need to designate someone from your team or do it yourself with the help of certain tools, such as web themes, with Ocean being a standout choice.

In this case, you just have to choose someone from your team, and at Media Source, through consultations, we can guide them or guide you, if you are the one doing it, step by step so that you can create a website without a design team. In other words, you benefit from us providing the tools and knowledge for you to do it.

This way, you make a one-time investment that will serve in the long term because you will be prepared to make changes, updates, and more on your own later.

Total Control

By building your website yourself, you maintain complete control over every aspect of the process.

This means you can customize your site to perfectly fit your needs and preferences, without depending on the interpretation or style of a third party.

Moreover, if there's anything you don't like or want to change, you can modify it whenever you decide to, without having to wait for someone else to make the move for you.

For example, if you decide to add a service or a product, you just go to the theme, edit, adapt the content, and publish it instantly.

Learning and Skill Development

It might seem insignificant, but it's not. By taking on the task of building your website, you gain valuable skills in web design and management.

This knowledge is not only useful for your current project but will also serve you in future endeavors as you gain greater awareness of what can really work on a website in terms of design, such as structure, user experience, etc.

Speed and Flexibility

Without the need to coordinate with a design team, the process of building and launching your website can be much faster.

Instead of wasting time on design and adaptation processes in development, you can move and adjust everything directly on the platform.

Likewise, you can create the same structure and design and apply it to all pages, saving even more time than doing it page by page, which tends to be stressful.

User-Friendly Resources and Tools

With the availability of intuitive web design tools and online resources, building a website on your own has become more accessible than ever.

Some platforms, such as HubSpot, often offer support and guides to help you along the way. Alternatively, theme developers, such as Media Source with the Ocean Theme, usually provide initial guidance so that you know everything you need before starting to build your website without a design team.

Personalization and Creativity

When creating your website, you have the freedom to experiment and be creative. You can play with different designs, colors, and content until you find the perfect combination that reflects your brand or personality.

In this way, for example, in Ocean, with 49 modules, combined with movements and your creativity, you can create up to more than 150 different modules as you modify them.

In conclusion, creating your own website without a design team is a viable and beneficial option. It not only saves you money but also gives you the opportunity to learn, be creative, and have total control over your online project.

Additionally, when choosing a theme, you can opt for one that you know will continue to be updated, like the Ocean theme, which receives certain updates every month to help a website keep renewing itself and stay functional.

Security

Another advantage is that, as long as you choose a good platform like HubSpot, you'll be covered in terms of security, providing certainty to people interacting with your site or making purchases through it.

HubSpot provides a standard SAN SSL certificate as soon as you connect a domain to your account.

If you prefer to use a different provider, you can easily add it through the custom SSL plugin.

How to create a website without a design team with Ocean Pro

Now, after seeing the advantages and benefits of creating a website on your own with the help of platforms, it's time to understand exactly how you can do it. While there are many options, we'll focus on one that we know and that delivers good results. It's the theme that Media Source has developed: Ocean.

Creating and designing a website with Ocean is really simple, even if you're not an expert, and the best part is: it can be done in a short amount of time.

Even if you don't have an expert on hand, you'll only need one designated person, whether it's a marketing expert or any other professional, to take charge of designing and assembling the website.

1. Determine the Purpose of Your Site

Every website must have a clear purpose, whether it's selling products, providing information, collecting leads, or establishing an online presence for a brand or individual.

It's crucial to reflect on what you want to achieve with your website. Is it an e-commerce portal, an informative platform, a gallery of your creative work, or a means to connect with potential clients?

Understanding your audience helps you create a site that responds to their needs and expectations, so define who your ideal visitors are. Consider their ages, interests, online behaviors, and what problems you can solve for them through your site.

Also, remember that content should align with your website's goal. For example, an e-commerce site will need product descriptions, while a blog will focus on articles and posts.

Determining the purpose of your website is a critical initial step that will influence all subsequent decisions, from design to content and marketing strategies. A clear goal will help you keep your site focused and effective, ensuring it meets its intended purpose and satisfies the needs of your audience.

2. Establish the Structure of Your Website

The structure of a site is the way its components are organized, and it's essential because it allows for good interaction with visitors.

While a designer doesn't play the main role in this, they do have an important perspective on the coherence of a site. For instance, arranging two modules together without any relationship can affect the user experience. So, these professionals often play a role in knowing how to arrange a website logically.

You can't place a CTA for customers to contact you first and then address the problems you solve; you need to focus first on addressing the pain and then provide options based on what you offer.

In this regard, in Ocean, you have all the necessary modules to create a strategic and functional structure: Home, Header, Services, Menus, Footers, CTAs, Forms, etc. All of them are based on a good user experience.

This way, the investment decreases because you don't need a designer, a programmer, and a marketing expert. You can only invest in a marketing expert or do it yourself.

Additionally, thinking about the needs of clients, Media Source is working to provide those who purchase Ocean with some base structures that help determine a functional and coherent site flow.

If you need guidance, you can request it for a much more comprehensive and professional job.

3. Define the Color Palette

The color palette and style guide are fundamental components in website design. They not only establish the overall aesthetics but also ensure consistency and reinforce your brand's identity.

You must be clear that colors are not just decorative; they also evoke emotions and have associated meanings. They should align with what your brand represents and how you want your audience to perceive you.

As we understand the importance of these elements, configuring the style guide in Ocean is straightforward; anyone can do it without design knowledge. This is done directly in the Theme Settings of Ocean.

You just need to be clear about the tones you'll use based on your brand, apply them in this section, and it will be reflected on all the pages you build in this theme. If you don't have your guide and want help, we can also support you through our professionals for an extra cost.

Once the color palette is defined, in the Style Guide section, you can see which sections each color and typography apply to, so you can make changes if necessary. Plus, you don't have to worry because once it's set, it applies to all pages. You don't have to go one by one.

4. Choose the Typography

Consistent typography improves readability and presents a professional appearance for your site. Therefore, the recommendation is to use fonts that complement each other and are easy to read on digital devices.

Maintain a readable font size (usually 16px for body text) and use no more than 2-3 font types throughout the site.

If you prefer, especially if you're just starting, you can opt for a single font; it doesn't affect your site or its functionality or its ability to convert.

Also, you can choose different fonts or colors for the blog. You just need to activate the "different typographic styles for the blog" option and configure it.

5. High-Quality Images and Multimedia

Images can add a unique and different touch to your website. In this case, with Ocean, you can achieve a subtle and professional touch that truly represents what you want to convey with your brand.

The same modules give you the option to give different shapes to images. For example, circular, square, rectangular borders, etc., providing the feeling that someone edited it in terms of design.

This way, you no longer need a designer to create images but can use freely licensed ones and insert them into Ocean, giving them a different and original touch with the available tools and options.

Furthermore, this theme allows you to insert pre-made icons, so you don't need a professional for that either. You just go to the Font Awesome application and copy and paste the code of the icon you want to use.

In addition to these options, by using HubSpot for Ocean, you have access to the over 500 icons that this tool offers.

If you're looking for something a bit more dynamic, there's also the option to use Lottie, where you can download animated images and use them in building your website without a design or development team.

6. Intuitive Navigation

Intuitive navigation on a website is like having a good map on a trip: it guides you and takes you to your destination without complications. It is crucial for any website, as poorly designed navigation can frustrate visitors and lead them to leave the site.

To achieve intuitive navigation, think about how your visitors will search for and access information on your site.

Start with a clear and simple navigation menu, which should be easy to find and understand, and be located at the top of each page. Section names should be descriptive and direct, avoiding jargon or confusing terms.

For example, if you have an online store, labels like "Products," "About," "Contact" are immediately recognizable and guide the user to the information they are looking for.

Consistency is another key factor in intuitive navigation. Maintain the same navigation format and style on all pages. If the menu is at the top of your homepage, make sure it is in the same position on all other pages. This creates a consistent user experience and reduces the learning curve for navigating the site.

Additionally, consider including a "breadcrumb" menu for sites with multiple levels of navigation. This shows the path the user has taken from the home page and helps navigate back easily.

For example, in a clothing store, it could look like this: Home > Women > Dresses > Summer Dress. This not only enhances the browsing experience but also helps users understand how the site is structured.

Lastly, don't underestimate the importance of an internal search engine, especially for websites with a lot of content. A well-placed search box allows users to quickly find what they're looking for, significantly improving their experience.

7. Responsive Design

Responsive design is a vital aspect of modern website creation, ensuring that your page looks and functions well on a wide range of devices, from desktop computers to smartphones and tablets.

The fundamental principle here is flexibility. This means that elements of your website, such as images, texts, and structures, should be able to adjust and rearrange smoothly to fit different screen sizes.

For instance, a text column displayed widely on a desktop computer screen can reorganize into a narrower format for comfortable reading on a mobile phone.

Moreover, it's not just about visual appearance but functionality as well. This means ensuring that all interactive elements, like buttons, links, and forms, are easily accessible and usable on touch devices.

Responsive design is also crucial for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search engines, like Google, prioritize websites that provide a good experience on mobile devices.

Implementing responsive design may seem challenging, but many website creation platforms and themes already offer responsive capabilities by default. This is the case with Ocean, which is a responsive theme that works on HubSpot.

Both platforms and tools are designed to provide a good user experience regardless of the device used to access the website.

Maximizing Functionality: Plugins and Widgets

In the process of building a website, it's not only important to pay attention to design but also to the functionality it will offer to visitors. This is where plugins and widgets come into play.

These tools can add a wide range of functionalities to your site, from simple contact forms to sophisticated e-commerce features.

Plugins, also known as add-ons or extensions, are applications that can be added to your website creation platform to extend or add new functions. For example, if you're using HubSpot, there are several plugins available that can help improve SEO, increase your site's loading speed, add contact forms, and much more.

The beauty of plugins lies in their simplicity: in most cases, you can install and configure them with just a few clicks, without the need for coding knowledge.

On the other hand, widgets are small applications that can be inserted into various areas of your website, such as sidebars, footers, or headers. These can include functionalities like lists of recent blog posts, photo galleries, clocks, weather updates, and more.

Widgets are excellent for adding interactive and useful elements to your site without overwhelming it.

Media Source + Ocean = a Functional and Appealing Site for Your Users

Beyond all the features and benefits of creating a website without a design team, you should know that choosing Ocean for this task comes with the great advantage of effective support.

We've been on the other side, and we know how frustrating it can be to wait for days or even weeks to receive help with a process. That's why we prioritize our users' requests and provide quick and, above all, effective responses while ensuring follow-up.

Additionally, we are flexible in the assistance we can provide, adapting to what people need. In other words, if you want to do it yourself, we give you an introduction to the theme so you can get to know it. If you want guidance, we can offer consultations. And if you prefer not to get too involved due to time constraints, we can do it for you in Ocean.

We truly adapt to what your business needs. If you want small tasks or specific services to enhance the use of this theme, such as a style guide, images, icons, among others, we can also assist you.

Ocean is not only built on good design, development, and SEO practices but is also designed to empower businesses to stop relying on others for a functional and effective online presence, providing the support they need to achieve success over time.