Creating a web design is the first step to making a website. You should always make one of these, even if it’s a website for yourself. It allows you to maintain an overall overview of your project and the steps you need to take to complete it. For a client, it lets them review your design and suggest any changes.
If you haven’t made a web design before, here’s how to do it.
Who is Your Client?
Designing something isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Professional designers can often come up with a great design without much thought. Through their experience in working with people from a wide range of backgrounds, they can take their profession and automatically come up with an idea which suits their audience. Ask your client questions about what he does and what the website is for. If he’s a doctor, you already know it needs to be professional and doesn’t need to be flashy or ‘in your face’.
Who is Your Audience?
Ask about whom the audience is and the goals of the website. This will tell you a lot about the sort of the design the client wants. They must have a complete aim and you must be willing to read between the lines. Some people aren’t clued up on web promotion and will only give you a very vague answer. It’s up to you to decode their statements.
For example, if they say “I want to sell more stuff.” you can imagine this means they want to enhance their exposure and encourage visitors to make a sale. In response, you’d make the products the center of the site and everything else second. It would be your job to make a streamlined ordering system.
Template
The first template should be for you. Most web designers find it easier to write it down on a pen and paper. It’s easier to tweak and they can mess up as many times as they want without losing too much time. The second template should be a full draft. Create the basic layout of the general layout of a standard page without all the widgets, labels, and content. It shouldn’t take too long. There are lots of pieces of software you can download which makes this process much faster. Some are as simple as dragging and dropping various elements with a minimal amount of coding. Don’t worry about functionality at this point. Essentially, you’re taking a screenshot and sending it to them. If you’re working for a client, you should charge for this service.
Full Design
The full design should take you one step forward. It should involve individually creating every page and adding all the labels and some content. You can use ‘Loremipsum’ for this. Again, it doesn’t have to work or be anything other than a static page. It just allows the client to see the full layout of the site. Once they’ve accepted the design, you can start adding all the little innards and features to make a truly great website.