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The real cost of a hard-coded page
A campaign page built by a developer takes a sprint and can only be changed by a developer. Marketing learns not to ask, campaigns get smaller, and the shop stops moving. The blocker was never the design — it was the dependency.
Build bricks, not buildings
Design a small set of blocks that compose: a product slider with a filter, a comparison table, a spec callout, a downloads list. Ten good blocks beat forty hyper-specific ones nobody can remember the purpose of.
Constrain the configuration
Do not expose a free colour picker and arbitrary spacing. Offer three variants, and let the theme keep the page on-brand. A CMS with unlimited freedom produces pages that need a redesign within a year.
Ship them with an app
CMS blocks can come from the app system, which means they survive updates and can be installed on several shops. If you run more than one storefront, build the block library once and roll it everywhere.
- Every developer-only page is a page that won't ship.
- Ten composable blocks beat forty specific ones.
- Constrain configuration to protect the brand.
Frequently asked questions
If marketing can build the pages they want with what is already there, you need nothing — and plenty of shops are in exactly that position. The signal to build is different: every campaign page needs a developer, so campaigns get postponed, then smaller, then stop being asked for. The blocker was never the design. It was the dependency.
Fewer than you think, and designed to combine. Ten blocks that compose — a filtered product slider, a comparison table, a spec callout, a downloads list — beat forty hyper-specific ones nobody can remember the purpose of. A block library that needs its own documentation has already failed. Build bricks, not finished buildings.
No. Offer three variants and let the theme keep the page on-brand. A free colour picker and arbitrary spacing feel generous for about two months, and then you have a shop full of pages that need a redesign to look like one company again. Constraint is the feature — it is what lets non-designers ship pages that still look right.
Yes, and that is usually the better route. Blocks that come from an app survive updates and can be installed across several shops. If you run more than one storefront, build the library once and roll it everywhere instead of copying Twig between projects and discovering next year that the three copies have drifted apart.
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