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Avoiding the Mike Brady Syndrome in Web DesignJune 21st, 2024

I originally wrote this post way back in 2011. I recently had an experience which brought me back to this very premise. A former client of mine passed control of his business onto his daughter who brought in her own web people (although we had a great relationship for over a decade). I understand, this is part of the business. But when I saw their new website, I checked out the company that had built it, and their entire portfolio was using the exact same WordPress theme over and over and the same exact design.

They just would substitute the main picture and change text, my guess is it took them an hour to build the entire websites. The problem with this is that it’s not only boring, it’s also not a good business practice at your charging people for a new website, but giving them re-used websites.

Back to the original post…..

Have you ever noticed when you are designing a website, you have a tendency to fall back on what worked in the past for you? Does it get to the point where all your sites start to look the same? I call this the “Mike Brady Syndrome”.   If you remember, in The Brady Bunch Movie, Mike, an architect was failing to sell designs as they all looked like his one successful project: The Brady house. He designed a gas station, and it was the Brady House with gas pumps, he then designed a restaurant, again exactly the same. He couldn’t understand why he couldn’t sell a design, as he was too close to it to see the forest through the trees.

The point is, we all get stale and it can be challenging to come up with new designs.  For me, I don’t have the option of repeated trips back to the drawing board, so I tend to have at least 2 other designers create a mockup along with myself. This allows my clients to have really good choices and the end result tends to be something special. As my company develops sites for small businesses, this type of service is pretty rare, and I am proud of that.  Now if I were strictly a designer I may not be able to do this, but since I also develop and ultimately manage the sites, it is my best interest to create something special, even if the design phase can be quite costly.  I also try to rotate in new freelancers to create designs, as using the same few ends up back with Brady Houses.

So let me ask you this, if you are a designer, you need to get inspiration to avoid the syndrome I mentioned. Where do you go for that inspiration? Websites? A walk in nature? I would love to hear. I am sure those pulling their hair out would like to know as well.

Now this post was originally written from a designer standpoint, but my point for updating this was that some companies get lazy and don’t even try to find an original take on a project. Now, from a financial standpoint, I understand why these companies are doing it, but I feel bad for their clients who are getting retreads but are being charged for new tires!

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