For those not-in-the-know, Third Space Books (TSB) is the online bookseller for SSG, the company that took over SPCK and then made a number of mistakes (but not necessarily in that order). In case you are too lazy to click on the link that I have kindly provided for you, the site looks a little like this:

The first thing that struck me about the site was its colour scheme. It’s fairly hard to ignore – and not something that I would instantly see as being very “Orthodox”. In fact, a quick search on Google Images for “Orthodox” reveals a somewhat overwhelming array of browns:

This made me a little suspicious as to who had actually designed this websites. A web designers role is to make the website seem fairly natural in its surroundings. I choose this layout for my website because I feel it reflects who I am. Similarly, the website I designed here, is in keeping with the personality of the group it represents. The fact that TSB seems to buck that trend suggested to me that it wasn’t designed by someone whose living it is to design these things.

My suspicions were further confirmed when I looked at the bottom of the webpage:

Joomla Templates by Joomlashack

Joomla is known as a Content Management System – a little like WordPress (like what this website runs off), it is a way for website owners to change the material on their site without knowing any code, and without hiring anybody to do it for them. Moreover, Joomla is free. Joomlashack is a website that sells pre-designed templates for those who want a site to look good, but don’t want to pay the price for having it professionally designed. It didn’t take long for me to find a template that looked quite similar to TSB’s. Here they are compared:

Obviously, there are subtle differences, but the overall feel is the same – particularly in the title. Look in the code for TSB shows that it is the same template as well.

As for the book selling part, and why there are some fairly controversial books in stock, all is explained when you look at this site from Amazon. In total, I would estimate that the TSB site cost around $100 to set up. I personally do not like the fact that this store did not bother to try and be unique, and instead apparently attempted to get ‘online’ as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Had a web designer designed this site, it possibly would have cost them about $1000 – $1500. It’s a shame SSG didn’t have that kind of money.