Web design
Designed in the browser, on your real content.
Most websites are designed as a picture and then rebuilt as a website. That gap is where the disappointment happens.
Web design at Werehouse Media means designing in the browser, at real screen sizes, using the client's actual content rather than placeholder text. A design shown as a flat image cannot tell you how it behaves when a headline runs to three lines on a phone, or what it looks like with a real photograph in it. Working in the browser removes that gap, so what is approved is what launches. Every design decision is made alongside the build and the search work by the same person, which means page structure, load speed and what people search for are settled together rather than reconciled afterwards. Projects start at £995, business websites from £1,795, and the homepage concept is shown early so the direction can be changed before the expensive part begins.
What does a web designer actually do?
A web designer decides what a visitor sees first, what they read next, and what makes them get in touch. That is mostly a set of decisions about order and emphasis rather than about decoration. The colours and the type matter, but they matter less than whether the page answers the question the visitor arrived with.
The part people underestimate is that those decisions constrain everything downstream. A layout that looks handsome as a picture can be slow, awkward on a phone, or impossible for a search engine to read properly. Deciding it in the browser means those problems surface while they are still cheap to fix.
Why design in the browser rather than in Figma?
Design tools are excellent for exploring ideas and hopeless at telling the truth about behaviour. A static artboard cannot show you what happens when your business name is longer than the placeholder, when a customer opens the page on a five-year-old Android, or when an image has not been optimised.
Working in the browser means every review is of the real thing. You are not approving a picture of a website and hoping the build matches it. You are approving the website.
The one honest cost of this approach: early drafts look less polished than a rendered mockup. A mockup is a photograph of a finished room. The browser draft is the room being built. Clients who want to be sold a beautiful image first sometimes find that uncomfortable, and it is worth knowing that in advance.
What makes a small business website actually work?
- The first screen answers the question they arrived with. What you do, where you do it, and whether you are credible. Most sites spend that space on a slogan.
- One obvious next action. Multiple competing buttons is the commonest conversion problem in small business sites.
- Proof near the claim. A testimonial three screens below the promise it supports does very little.
- It loads fast on a phone on mobile data. Not on your laptop on office wifi.
- The contact route matches how customers behave. Trades get called. Consultants get emailed. Forcing everyone through the same form loses the ones who would have used the other.
How long does website design take?
A single page is days. A business website with several pages is usually three to six weeks, and most of that is waiting on content rather than on design. Complex builds with custom animation or e-commerce run longer, and the timeline is agreed at quote stage rather than promised in advance and missed.
What it costs
| What | From | Right when |
|---|---|---|
| Project | £995 | One clear service, one area, needs to look credible now |
| Business website | £1,795 | Several services or locations, each needing its own page |
| Complex custom | Five figures, occasionally | Heavy animation, e-commerce, booking or custom systems |
| Brand kit alongside | £895 | Establishing or refreshing the identity at the same time |
Every project is quoted in writing before work starts, and you own the domain, the code and every account outright. See all services or the process for how a build runs week by week.
When you should not hire a designer at all
If your budget is under about £200 and you need something live this month, use Squarespace and do it yourself. If nobody can find you at all, that is a search problem and a redesign will not fix it. And if you are pre-revenue and still testing whether anyone wants the thing, trade under a plain name and spend the money finding out.
Straight answers
Common questions.
For a UK small business in 2026, a one-page site runs roughly 400 to 900 pounds, a business website with several pages 1,000 to 4,000 pounds, and anything with e-commerce, booking or custom functionality 4,000 pounds upwards. Werehouse Media projects start at 995 pounds and business websites at 1,795 pounds, quoted in writing before work begins.
Design decides what the site looks like and how it is ordered. Development builds it so it works, loads quickly and can be read by search engines. Splitting them across two people is where most problems start, because decisions get made in isolation and reconciled afterwards. Here the same person does both.
Yes. The homepage concept is shown early, in the browser at real sizes on real content, so the direction can be changed before the expensive part begins. What gets approved is the actual website rather than a picture of one.
No. Pages are designed for the business rather than filled into a layout somebody else decided. The tooling is chosen per project, and for many builds hand-written HTML, CSS and JavaScript is lighter and faster than any framework.
Yes, and the important part is not losing the rankings you already have. That means recording where you started, mapping every old URL to a new one, and checking after launch rather than hoping. Redesigns start from 795 pounds depending on how much of the existing site can be kept.
Next step
Tell me what the site has to do.
Not what you want it to look like. What it has to achieve. The design follows from that, and I will tell you honestly if a redesign is not the answer.