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The beginnings of a site

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t5amec

t5amec

Programmer
Aug 14, 2003
112
GB
this is just a general enquiry really...
when you are at the starting blocks of a website, how do you come up with the design? do you draw it, use an image software or just code it full of tables?
do you make sure all code is complete and perfect before even going into details of design?
does anyone else wonder about how other webmasters start and finish?

Make Sense? I hope so (-:
 
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I think this really depends on whether you are mainly a designer or a developer.

As a developer, I always have a hard time coming up with a suitable design, no matter whether I try before I have any content, or whether I wait until I have all the content. This is why I normally leave all the design stuff to a designer.

Most designers I've worked with have not been developers, and the design work is normally done before, or in parallel with, the development work.

Dan


[tt]D'ya think I got where I am today because I dress like Peter Pan here?[/tt]

 
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i'm both a designer n developer, so im wondering if you find it easier to work around a design, or come up with the main content before a single image is made?!

Make Sense? I hope so (-:
 
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I'm a bit of a designer and developer as well. I try as best I can to separate the structure of the site with the actual design, which is the purpose of CSS. Sometimes I'll code the site and put in enough style information to get an idea of how it'll look. Then I'll go back when the site's done and create the design. I usually sketch out the design on paper before creating any graphics.

 
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Design it first. But remember design is much more than what it looks like. Design the site, how it works, what it does and how it does it etc.

So many designers fail to do this, but it is, in my opinion, the most crucial step of a serious website.

Once you have that worked out you can start thinking about what it will look like. When doing this, dont worry about how you will achieve X or how can you do Y. Don't let your knowledge of the technology (or lack of knowledge) put you off. The web is a big place, there is always someone around who can help you work out a problem.

Start developing the site (you could even do this alongside the previous step) Get skeleton pages working, iron out problems.

It should all come together quite quickly from this point.

I have done so many projects that seem to drag on with nothing happening and then get finished before you know what's happened. It's often a nice suprise!

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
 
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Depends on the client. Sometimes they want to see a design first, other times they want to see a small application in action.

To save myself time I keep general template files of common layouts... It becomes a drag to constantly type
<html><head> etc...

Same thing with code snippets. Put them into functions and reuse them. I'm starting to do that with database schemas too :) saves time on all them insert statements

 
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First I try to figure out the structure of the site (pen & paper). And this is the most important stage for me because I'm more a designer than a developer and I have to think carefully how exactly my ideas are going to work. My problem is that I usually have to many ideas :) Then I "sketch" in Photoshop, the program I feel most comfortable with and switch to Flash if necessary. Usually I do the programming part myself so I do not have the luxury of blaming someone else.
 
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I tend to do the design first. As Foamcow said, the design is important to have first so that you can know how the end product will look and work and develop it accordingly. Once I design it in Photoshop, I tend to start out with a basic "table" layout and slowly convert the image into a working template. Even though I'm a programmer and not much at all of a designer, it's hard for me to work on the programming aspect without having the rest in place.

Rick

RISTMO Designs: Rockwall Web Design
Arab Church: Arabic Christian Resources
Genuine Autos: Kaufman Chevrolet & Pontiac Dealer
Rick Morgan's Official Website
 
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Speaking as a hobbyist, generally designing sites for myself, this is my method:
[ul]
[li]Come up with basic idea for site (this would be "get/determine brief with client" if I had one).
[/li]
[li]Brainstorm all possible pages/features that could go into the site - then sift out inpractical/undesirable options (some might go onto the "back burner" for later implementation.
[/li]
[li]Sketch out on a piece of paper how all these pages are going to be structured - having worked out the navigation you have an idea as to how large and complex the navigation area on each page is going to be.
[/li]
[li]Sketch out a page design on paper - determining where framework elements are going to go: logo, menu(s), header, footer; and where the page's unique content is going to go.
[/li]
[li]Build a skeleton page (or pages) using the HTML-building tool of your choice. Don't try to do everything at once - build up from the basics and test it step-by-step. Take time to get it 90% right - there'll always be tweaks to make later on. Use some mechanism - templates, SSI, frames (sigh) - to keep the framework elements seperate from the page content, it'll make the tweaking process so much easier.
[/li]
[li]Start building your content, pouring the content of each page into the appropriate part(s) of the skeleton.
[/li]
[/ul]


-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd
 
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I tend to do the design first. As Foamcow said, the design is important to have first so that you can know how the end product will look and work and develop it accordingly.
Click to expand...

I would like to stress that the underlying point of me saying that was that you MUST consider the site design as more than it's aesthetics.
Web site design is about structure and how someone would use the site and only THEN is it about how it looks.

I normally work out a rough structure and some ideas as a starting point for the client, but I stress upon them the importance of working it all out first and allowing the visual appearance to adapt accordingly.

Imagine designing a book where you first had to define what a book actually is, i.e. How do people turn the page, which way around should it be held, how do you convey the information etc.

I'm babbling now.


Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
 
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