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When thinking about how to make a website, it’s safe to say that 9 out of 10 times most people just jump right in and start with the design—the graphical look and feel part of the overall website project. It’s the design that gets people excited and motivated about making a website. And this is a good thing!
As you move forward though, please remember that there is a lot more to the big picture than just the graphical design itself—a professional website will always be based on impeccable planning and will be designed and developed on a solid platform of quality hosting and a well-researched domain name. Design is the fun part, but it’s actually a reasonably small piece of the overall pie.
How do you design a website?
Because web design (graphical) and web development (coding & programming) are actually two very unique and separate areas of focus, most quality websites skip the what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) all-in-one web design programs. They might be okay for very, very basic use, but just don’t cut it for robust, professional design and development. There are other web design programs like Adobe Dreamweaver that really require quite a bit of skill to use—in other words, they might appeal to the DIY website designer, but they’re really pretty complicated and geared towards power users and professional designers.
Most professional web designers rely on Adobe Photoshop and/or Adobe Fireworks for the graphical design phase of the web design project. Here at Sleepless Media, we prefer Fireworks for design work. Either way, these are pro-grade design platforms, and when used be experienced creative web design professionals, they deliver the most professional results. Again, they’re probably not going to deliver the best results for the first-time designer with little to no experience.
Once the graphical user interface of a website has been designed, the image files can then be used by the web development team to code up and program the website into a functional, interactive piece of work. We’ll cover development next time in this series.
Are there do it yourself options?
Yes, there are a few DIY options out there for creating a very basic website that will actually look and function pretty decently. The best of the bunch when it comes to this category will almost always be in the form of a web-based service that uses various templates and allows you to pick and choose the design right there. Not exactly an “A” grade for originality, but it can get the job done if really necessary. The other general rule of thumb is to avoid any design software (pretty much anything that comes on a disc or via download)…there just aren’t any good design programs out there that will get the job done in a professional way—although most are really good at selling themselves to would-be designers who’ll ultimately become very frustrated when trying to use the programs.
The bottom line on web design…
If you’re considering all of the intricacies of how to make a website, sometimes design is the first one you’ll think about. It’s a great idea to jot down your ideas and vision for the site. Just keep in mind the fact that professional designers are able to deliver professional results when it comes to the web design phase of the project. There’s a time and place for learning how to design—even creating a personal website or blog as a hobby—just don’t risk your business or organization’s professional image by using amateur design.
