How Website Builder Platforms Democratize the Internet by Providing Tools and Templates to Create Beautiful Web Projects
It used to be that only technologically savvy people could build websites and contribute to the internet. Over the past few years, this trend has changed with more and more companies releasing tools that help people who may not be web developers develop websites and have them hosted on the many platforms that are available. Tools like WordPress and Wix are perhaps the best-known tools that help people do this. This proliferation of technology where it is made available to everyone regardless of their technical skills is due to the democratization of the internet.
Accessibility
The internet can be thought of as an open space where anyone can have their website or content up to be viewed by, and be available to, anyone. Website builder platforms have made this easy as they have made their tools accessible to anyone who wants to build a website. Users can now build a website in a matter of hours as opposed to hiring a web developer. This accessibility has also cut the cost and time it takes to go live for businesses and people who are short on both money and time.
Cost
Companies and businesses that provide tools and templates that anyone can use to create websites have cut their costs as more players enter the market. You can see this trend if you search for “Website builders” on any search engine. Because of the falling cost of these tools, affordable website builder platforms have helped democratize the internet by lowering the cost of entry and making it possible for anyone to build a website.
Ease of Use
As more and more people choose to build their own websites, companies that build the tools and create templates that allow them to do so are making their tools easier to use. They do this to not only help their users but to also differentiate themselves from other businesses. Most people who have never built a website before, or do not have the technical skills to do so, want tools that are easy to use.
If the tools are not, they present a learning curve that most people do not have the time to get over. If a tool is too hard to use, people will opt for another which makes making these tools and templates as easy to use as possible vital.
Improved User Experience
Ease of use is one of the ways that website builder platforms and tools improve the user experience. Another way is through providing the features that people need. When everything is right in front of people, they do not need to dig around to find the feature they would like to use. It also makes it infinitely easy to get familiar with the builder or template which improves user experience.
Increased Sophistication
As more people learn how to use website builders, tools and templates, companies can add new features to increase the sophistication of these tools. This allows users to create beautiful, intricate and increasingly sophisticated websites. Even though increasing the sophistication of a tool can lead to a new learning curve that users might have to get over, it also ensures that every project that is completed using this tool is unique.
If you look at tools that use the Bootstrap framework to help users build websites, you will notice that most of them sacrifice sophistication for increased ease of use. The result is that most of the projects that are completed using these tools look identical.
Tying it All Together
Democratizing the internet calls for putting the necessary tools in the hands of people so they can contribute to the internet. It implores those who create website builders, tools and templates to make them accessible to as many people as possible. All these things can be achieved by making these tools affordable, easy to use, improving the user experience, and making them sophisticated enough so that the end-results are both beautiful and unique.
Democratization also implores the creators of these tools to allow users to participate in the development and improvement of these tools. When they do, all the aims mentioned above can be met easily as the companies will focus on just what users need.
The democratization of the internet can lead to a cultural shift where the expertise of building websites spreads to everyone. When this happens, the way we build the internet will change and these changes will touch on every aspect of our lives including how we view high-level web development expertise.
Conclusion
Building the building blocks of the internet, including websites, has always been viewed as a job for professionals. All of this is changing with website builder platforms providing tools and templates that let anyone build beautiful sophisticated web projects. This is the democratization of the internet that a lot of people have been waiting for.
About the Author
Bibhuranjan Editorial Officer, technofaq.org I'm an avid tech enthusiast at heart. I like to mug up on new and exciting developments on science and tech and have a deep love for PC gaming. Other hobbies include writing blog posts, music and DIY projects.
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