Designers are the clowns of business
This is one of those uncomfortable truths designers hate admitting.
There is a near-perfect baseline website structure.
Not visually. Structurally.
Most websites need the same things:
Clear positioning
Clear proof
Clear services
Clear process
Clear next step
That stack hasn’t changed in 15+ years. It probably won’t change in the next 15.
So why does everything end up looking so bespoke?
Because websites are treated like self-expression, not infrastructure.
Designers are rewarded for novelty, not outcomes.
Clients react to “different”, not “clear”.
Portfolios reward visual distinction, not conversion or longevity.
So people keep reaching for new layouts, new interactions, new patterns. Not because the old ones failed, but because the designer is bored.
That’s the first problem.
The second problem is ego disguised as craft.
Good designers know the rules.
Great designers know when to break them.
Most designers break them to prove they know them.
That’s where the “fancy for fancy’s sake” behaviour comes from.
Every tiny custom tweak is a signal:
“Look how considered I am”
“Look how different this is”
“Look how much work I did”
But most of those tweaks don’t improve usability.
They introduce friction, cognitive load and maintenance cost.
The irony i'm circling hereis real.
Bad designers rely on templates because they don’t understand structure.
Mid designers customise everything to feel valuable.
Very good designers simplify again.
That’s the full arc.
The reason nobody says “here’s the perfectly simple website, don’t touch it” is because:
- It doesn’t sell creative services
- It doesn’t feed portfolios and awards
- It removes the illusion of bespoke value
And because the industry doesn’t treat websites like buildings.
In architecture, you don’t redesign doors every time.
You don’t reinvent stairs.
You don’t question where bathrooms go.
You design within proven systems and express the brand through materials, proportion, restraint.
Web design skipped that maturity phase.
We went straight from:
“Everything is a template”
to “Everything is art”
Without agreeing on what should be boring and stable.
The truth most people avoid saying:
A website should be 80–90% standardised infrastructure.
The last 10–20% is where brand lives.
Typography choices
Spacing and rhythm
Tone of voice
Imagery
Motion restraint
Hierarchy emphasis
That’s enough.
When you try to force uniqueness into structure, you break the thing doing the work.
So yeah. Designers are jesters in disquise.
There should be a “boringly perfect” website system.
Responsive by default.
Type dialled.
Layouts solved.
Interactions minimal and purposeful.
SEO clean.
CMS sane.
Performance locked.
And then you leave it alone.
The fact that this feels radical in 2026 says more about the industry than the web.
The truth?
Most websites aren’t over-custom because the problem demands it.
They’re over-custom because the designer does.
And the best work often looks inevitable, not impressive.
That’s usually how you know it’s right.