Web Design: A guide for the beginners
Before diving knee-deep into the process of how to design a website, let's begin with the basics first. What exactly is web design? Website design refers to the process of creating a visual look and the feel for a website. These days design also incorporates the idea of user experience. This means that web design does not only include how good your website looks. It is more about how easy it is for the users to do different things on it such as obtaining information and finding important buttons and links. The look (what people can see on your website) and the feel (how easy it is to use your website) both combine to form the web design.
Websites are built using different coding languages such as the HTML and CSS. They tell a web browser how to arrange all the text on the website, which colors for making things, where to put images, etc.
5 Tools that can Help you Achieve your Desired Web Design
These days web page design does not mean you would have to hire a professional and empty your pockets. There are different tools available that can help you in web designing yourself and help you create the web design that you want.
Here are 5 tools for web design that you should know about.
1. Wondershare Mockitt
Wondershare Mockitt is one of the most professional and handy product website design and collaboration platform that brings your designs to life. With Mockitt, you can design a website as fast as possible, leaving more time for you to think and contemplate about.
Mockitt lets you design, interact, inspect and discuss regarding your website design. It also offers you with multiple templates for designing effectively. Through its Cloud, you can keep every project in sync anytime, anywhere. Moreover, you can also bring everyone in your enterprise together and share it with others. There are multiple options available for designing including various built-in widgets and icons that can help you in creating beautiful interfaces in a few minutes.
Rich UI assets and templates of diverse industries speed up your design process at Mockitt. Now you can build the asset library of your own or your team, and reuse them anytime. Simply start your work in a browser, without limitation of time and space. No more uploading and downloading design files, Mockitt keeps every project online and in sync. Now you can collaborate across different devices with real time co-editing.
2. Fireworks
Adobe has designed a special commercial raster and graphics editor hybrid called the Adobe Fireworks, it is available for the Mac and Windows operating systems. Unlike Adobe Photoshop it has been deliberately designed for web designers, if you are planning on designing a website this tool brings you a plethora of tools and choices to choose from that will make the full web layout prototyping a breeze for you.
Some of its prominent features are "slices" this is a tool for rapidly creating prototypes by slicing and dicing a design mockup into HTML/CSS, though it is advisable to avoid using auto generated source code for the end build, the ability to package the whole site design as a PDF with components that you can click for interactive and exceptional site prototypes, and optimization tools which make your web graphics as lightweight as possible.
3. Dreamweaver
Adobe Dreamweaver is another commercial application that is used for web development and that's available for and compatible with the Mac and Windows operating systems. It has a very useful featured pack suite of tools and options which include : syntax highlighting and very smart Code Hinting, it has an in-built FTP client for file sharing, project management and workflow options that make teamwork effortless, and Live View - this feature shows you a preview of your source code. Another attractive feature of Dreamweaver is that it tightly integrates with other popular Adobe products such as Photoshop, which enables you to share Smart Objects for fast and swift updating and editing of graphic components.
4. Panic Coda
If you are looking for a program for Mac OS X operating system, then Panic Coda is what you are looking for. It is a shareware web development application specifically created for Mac OS X operating System. The main objective of this application is that it seeks to lessen the amount of applications (such as FTP client, CSS editor, a version control system etc.) you need to develop websites and to further improve your team's workflow. They have a one window web development philosophy which uses a tabbed interface for editing text, file transfers, SVN, CSS, and even "Books" which sets in web books that are searchable. This comes with The Web Programmer's Desk Reference but you can add your own.
Due to its simple and instinctive interface, Coda was awarded the Best Mac OS X User experience by Apple Design Awards in 2007.
5. Photoshop
One of the most famous and commonly used commercial graphics editor is the Adobe Photoshop, it is easily available to use with Mac and Windows operating systems. This software is created especially for professional photographers and designers, the ideal use of this application is for manipulating and recreating images and web graphics. Photoshop has all the significant tools and options which you might need for enhancing the visual graphics of your projects such as: Filters - this feature automatically adds effects to your image or a selected part of your image, extensibility and automation with Brushes, Actins and Scripting, and workflow up gradations features such as Layer Comps and the Revert option.
A Comprehensive Guide for Web Design
Web design is tricky. If you own a business, you definitely need a website. One needs to take a lot of things in account while designing a website ranging from its visual experience (how the website looks) to its functional design (how does it work).
Here is a comprehensive guide on web page design inspired by web designs near me. The first step in designing a website is acquiring a domain name and hosting. After that has been done, there are three to four important steps for designing a website.
Define Project Scope - Defining the scope of the project is a critical step. One of the most common frustrations with Web projects is scope creep. By creating a well-defined project scope plan that outlines specific activities and deliverables, along with specific timelines, you will be able to clearly set expectations for your clients.
Wireframes and Site Architecture - Once the blueprint for the site has been defined through the creation of the sitemap and wireframes, the next step is to create a visual style. The overall visual style will most likely be determined by the visual brand of the organization; the goal being to connect the Web with all other forms of the organization's communications.
Site Development - With designs approved, it's time to flesh out the design of the pages, develop new content and refine old content, create videos, slideshows, podcasts and other media that will appear on the site as well as start to build out the HTML and CSS of the site.
Site Testing - Before the site is launched, it will be placed on a production server where only internal audiences and anyone who you share the link with can view it. Testing of the site is critical as there will inevitably be issues that need to be addressed before the site goes live. There is nothing that erodes a brand more than a site that doesn't function properly or that has misspellings or broken design elements. At this stage the site will need to be reviewed on multiple browsers (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer) and multiple devices (laptops, tablets, and mobile) to see if and where breaks occur.
Launch - The big day. You've tested the site, had it reviewed and approved by the project stakeholders, and you're ready to launch. But once the site is launched, the project isn't over — you should be prepared to address feedback from users adapting to the new site. Expect to make some immediate changes to the site, such as fixing broken links, editing copy and making adjustments. The Web is a fluid medium that changes on a daily, if not hourly basis — change is inevitable.
Site Maintenance - Websites are living, breathing entities and need constant care and maintenance. Updating content, making changes to the backend and fixing broken links are all in a day's work. All of these phases are critical to the Web design process. But the thread that runs through the process is strategy: the desire to achieve a goal, to move the organization forward, to prosper in a competitive environment. Let's take a look at what strategy is, how it is formulated and how it translates to the Web.
