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January 27, 2009 03:56 PM

Web Design: What do you use when you plan out a website? Do you storyboard, Photoshop or pencil and paper

If you storyboard, do you use a specific software or draw it out? If you use Photoshop, do you Adobe or do you use some other graphics program? If you use Pencil and Paper, what is the process that you use? Any examples would be nice. Thanks!
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joez430 joez430
 
 January 28, 2009 04:08 PM
I will list some steps I have taken for my work. You'll probably want to start out with a wireframe which defines your interface. There are a few programs that will allow you to create this. Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Visio, ProtoShare etc. Planning you site navigation is an integral part of your design.

On to comprehensive layout. You can find your stock photography, clipart, or whatever materials you want to incorporate into your new site. This will be a part of your proposed design offered to your client. After your layout is done in your favorite graphics program (I use free graphics software called Paint.net) I move on to finding a structured template to work off of.

There are many free templates readily available on the web. I'll list out a whole bunch of resources for you to reference. Please let me know if I can further assist. If you haven't already I would also recommend learning CSS. CSS will allow you to everything from positioning elements or creating div boxes. There are plenty of tabless CSS designs out there you can work off of. I use a site called http://www.w3schools.com/ to reference anything related to HTML, CSS, Javascript etc .

CSS will allow you to make only one change that effects the entire site. Keep this in mind while designing.

Free Stock photography
-----------------------------------
http://www.sxc.hu/
http://www.everystockphoto.com/

Free Web Templates
------------------------------
http://www.opendesigns.org/
http://www.oswd.org/
http://www.openwebdesign.org/
http://www.freecsstemplates.com/templates.html

Icon Sets
--------------------
http://sixrevisions.com/resources/40-beautiful-free-icon-sets/

Best open source resources for developers
-------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.webappers.com/

I hope all this helps you!

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drmatt drmatt
 
January 27, 2009 04:31 PM
I first think about what experience I want the user to have. I follow Apple's lead... it's all about the UI And KISS. I also keep in mind that I want the web to continue changing, so I want to make it easy for myself down the line. Computer are made to make things easy for us humans. I think I've used paper/pencil to mock up what I want and then I go off the the 'net to see if there's anything pre-made that I can use. I would NEVER use Photoshop. That's like boiling an egg with a nuclear pile. But I DO use Adobe's GoLive (since discontinued). I love the ability to use a template over the entire site. One change to the template changes every web page! Mmmm...

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vandal913 vandal913
 
January 27, 2009 05:44 PM
When I've designed a website in the past, I've used a variety of methods to plan it out, including both pencil and paper and Photoshop. Pencil and paper, without a doubt, is where I first start any design project. Technology is great, but there's nothing like the freedom of a fresh sketch (in most cases, quite a few sketches actually!). I tend to storyboard when putting together my sketches, so that I can fully prepare for designing and create a 'visual site map', so to speak. Once I've picked out a couple of potential designs, I'll move on to the computer and begin to imagine these coming together on the computer screen. Photoshop can actually be helpful if you are doing a fairly basic website using such software as Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Obviously there are certain constraints you are forced to work under when using Photoshop to design a site, but for a basic user or someone just starting out it can be a good tool for website design.

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williamwac... williamwac...
 
January 28, 2009 03:59 AM

Pencil and Paper !? YIKES!

I am not an expert but I have done a couple of dozen web sites.

 

I am not nearly artistic enough to creat a decent site from scratch. For those who are artistically challenged like myself, find a site or two or three you like. Make screen shots. Then use something like Front Page, Expression Web, or whatever HTML editor you like to create your new site picking the best elements from the screen shots.


Source(s):
Personal opinion.


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cmealerjr cmealerjr
 
January 28, 2009 10:23 PM
The first thing I do is review what graphic resources the client has provided. These will give you a good feel for the personality of the client. Then I take them into photoshop and see what I can play off of and how it mixes with other items. Usually after that I have a pretty good idea of where the site is going to go visually.
Source(s):
2 years of web design


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