Why Does Template Product Design Feel Disposable?

Jessica Hische says template-based product design feels disposable because the content and the visual design never become one thing.

A template-based way of building scales, since a very small set of visuals and constraints can roll lots of things out. The content the design surrounds never gets its full breadth of interest. She compares that split to a marriage. Some couples remain two islands that happen to be married. Others, over time, become one island, and the boundary disappears. Content and visual design that stay separate never reach that point, so the design is easy to throw away. People suggest a rebrand because the design was never integral to the experience. A space wholly furnished in IKEA furniture is easy to compose and easy to put people in, yet it does not feel like one coherent object.

Treating the work as disposable shows a lack of trust that it will last. A real investment in how things are built and made creates the belief that the work is going to last because of how people are making it. A quick fab flip house can hide total garbage behind the walls, because the person who built it does not care about the house lasting.