Why I Design Websites Using Squarespace
Let me first say, I am a huge fan of Squarespace.
It allows me to work fast and iterate fast. It’s a tool I know like the back of my hand. It allows your website to look like a team of developers worked on it for months. Squarespace websites are responsive like very few I see out in the wild. It’s affordable. (There are cheaper ways to host a website and domain, but their systems are rarely user-friendly and sometimes their ethics are questionable. Also important to note: Wordpress sites are by far the most hacked.) It’s easy to update and keep fresh with very little training.
You can use one of their excellent templates for a DIY website with a lower learning curve, or hire a designer to create a custom design and have full control over the site. (With enough time and patience and research, anyone could learn to make their Squarespace site do anything they want, but you may end up taking on a new design career by the end of learning how!)
But, I do think some of their marketing is misleading. It’s quite as not as easy as it seems or as they make it sound. Many of my clients have found me after trying to make their websites and getting overwhelmed. I think that’s completely normal! This is even common with designers who work in other fields, and have backgrounds using design programs. So, please don’t be hard on yourself if creating a Squarespace website from scratch has you throwing in the towel.
It really works in many ways like InDesign, an Adobe tool for book layouts that also takes years to really master. (Although it’s a blast once you get it down!) Once an InDesign file is set up, though, it’s easy to change text and make minor updates.
With Squarespace, it’s very easy to change text or images; it’s the overall set-up that’s hard, and it’s hard to get the hang of some of the more advanced tools.
Once a website is designed and set up, Squarespace is user-friendly enough to use that I can teach my clients a few tricks, and hand off their websites to update on their own (although I’m also happy to manage that if they’d prefer to keep it hands-off.)
I’ll use this space to post some tutorials that cover basics and fill in some gaps in the information that’s already out there.
Is there some aspect of Squarespace you’d like help with?