I got so much hate for saying this from all over the world – from the bad web designers that don’t make the cut, at least not according to my standards.
Haters gonna hate, and that’s expected when you speak up without placating the feelings of the inferior masses.
My #1 Red Flag – Still uses Photoshop or Illustrator for website layouts!
Not only will you pay way too much for very poor quality, it also says a lot about the freelancer’s mindset: close-minded, unwilling to grow.
Do you want to work with somebody like that…?
In fact, this is so terribly far behind modern standards, that I frankly cannot believe these people still exist and eat.
Would you use a screwdriver to bore holes as you build a house?
Even when it does make a hole, it’ll be a rough, unevenly shaped mess. There’s a good chance you damage your drywall, a pipe, or yourself.
That’s what it’s like to use Photoshop or Illustrator for website mockups these days.
Photoshop was never a layout/mockup program – it was for editing photos and creating engaging graphics. We just started using it on website layouts in the 90s because there were no good alternatives.
The Advent of Real Website Layout Software In The 21st Century
But soon, with the explosion of the web with mobile phones entering our day to day, the floodgates opened for proper website layout software.
Sketch (2010), Adobe XD and Figma (2016) all offer:
- Mobile and desktop layouts in one (an absolute must-have)
- Reusable design elements (just like how websites load on browsers)
- Browser-ready element and code exports (how did we live without this)
- … and so much more I cannot even begin to list (I actually don’t know, my designers do – I just buy them what they ask me for).
They’ve been refined and improved beyond recognition in the past several years. We used Sketch (for Mac) for a while, and are currently in love with Figma!
The gap between the latest version of Figma and Photoshop as far as website layout goes is like comparing a 2025 Tesla electric motor to a 2005 two-stroke lawnmower engine.
Where Photoshop Should Be Used When Building a Website
We use Photoshop all the time; to generate beautiful graphics we place into storytelling websites.
But if you find out a web designer uses Photoshop or Illustrator for the website layouts, fire them NOW, and thank me later (shoot me a Insta DM on @jeffkee), and put the money you saved towards a yoga and surf retreat to Nicaragua instead.
Next up is my Red Flag #2 in Web Designers; related to domains, not the website itself!
