The Process of Designing a Website?

[PhilC]

How do most of you design a website? The exact process or steps that you use would be helpful to many ...

I begin by setting out clearly in WRITING the aims of the site, the technical requirements, any special requirements (disabled friendly) and how I am going to achieve all this.

Then I go about collecting and organising the content.

Based on the content I create the structure of the site (the navigation system).

The website design templates are made next.

Anyway, that was me bragging in there for some time, thanks for listening ...

Now help me out. I have just adapted this procedure.
Looking to fine tune it.

Calling for all the experts to comment on ...

[ATLien]

The process would take to long to write down, and most web designers do it their own way. I would sujest you just find your own style and process and go with it.

[wbstein]

i usually start with the circle tool.

[DaveyBoy]

Lob photoshop on, mess about in it, decide i like it, cut it up, code it, et walla!

[PhilC]

Originally Posted by ATLien

The process would take to long to write down, and most web designers do it their own way. I would sujest you just find your own style and process and go with it.

The process does take some time, but it is really helpful ...

If you just sit and think and plan any project before you begin executing, its bound to come out just as you desired.

Unfortunately ....

In this world, what is the hardest thing to do?
Give up?
It is the process of THINKING.

That is why we have bad web designs, softwares, and what nots ...

If people would just think ...

Think about it

[chaka42]

Phase 1: i have a creative brief available for my clients to help me out in developing ideas that would best fit their needs. this is my starting point. i sketch out some ideas either on paper, computer or both. then i get cracking.

Phase 2: i design up to 3 concepts for my clients to choose from. once they have decided on one and revisions have been made, i begin to develop the site skeleton.

Phase 3: after the site skeleton has been approved we start adding content and functionality. any programming or forms is done here.

Each phase completion, with the exception of the first, payments are due.

[Fusion]

Bottom up approach.

[PhilC]

Chaka42 .... that was really helpful ... Thats the kind of info i am looking for and believe will be helpful to many. Thanks.

[Dark_Matter]

The first thing I do is decide in my mind what the goal/point of the site is. This seems simple/obvious, but when working in a team you'd be surprised how often people aren't on the same page. Sometimes even the client misunderstands the point of their site.

The next thing I do is make a list of all the pages in the site, and what their contents will be, and what portions need to be emphasized (marketing blurbs, etc.). Then I figure out what pages need to link to each other, and what links should be most prominent.

Next I figure out what the backend is going to be: search scripts? ecommerce? database? The site will need to be (somewhat) built around the requirements of the backend.

Now I have the info I need to start thinking about how to organize the site structure. Sometimes I will draw a flowchart/diagram of the site so I can get an idea of the path visitors will take to get to each page. This step can help you pre-empt problems with useablity.

Now that all these problems have been solved, I start working on the graphic design of the site. This is the part of the site that guides you to the content and keeps you from falling asleep. Usually I have ideas, so I make a bunch of sketches and elaborate on the best ones. I advise not using the very first design you come up with, exploration of the idea will usually pay off.

[PhilC]

Originally Posted by Dark_Matter

The first thing I do is decide in my mind what the goal/point of the site is. This seems simple/obvious, but when working in a team you'd be surprised how often people aren't on the same page. Sometimes even the client misunderstands the point of their site.

Exactly. But somehow people just do not get this.
I understood the importance of this by accident. I was working on a site and suddenly midway, I found that I was changing track and doing things differently. The fact is new ideas will keep coming to you and your clients ... so if you do not define your goals carefully, it is very easy to get distracted ...
This saves you money and time too ... Before starting a project I make my client answer a lot of questions to define the goals of the site, and send him a copy of it too ... when he/she wants me to implement something different, I just point him to the original goals of the site ....

Originally Posted by Dark_Matter

The next thing I do is make a list of all the pages in the site, and what their contents will be, ...... Now I have the info I need to start thinking about how to organize the site structure ..... Sometimes I will draw a flowchart/diagram of the site so I can get an idea of the path visitors will take to get to each page. This step can help you pre-empt problems with useablity.

This is another thing newbies have a difficulty with ... You don't create content for a design, you design for the content. As dark master points out rightly, this helps a lot with increasing the usability of the web site ...

Excellent points Dark master ... and thanks for the info ... it helped me a lot ...

[chaka42]

yeah, the creative brief that we use covers all of these aspects. if you want to take a look at here it is: http://www.3howards.com/images/briefweb.pdf (pdf)

my clients always fill this out first before we do anything.

[PhilC]

Wow, that was really useful Chaka ... Got a lot of great ideas from your brief ... I actually fill up mine after hearing them out and than give it to the clients for revision ... Thanks again.