Hey Guys,

 

I don't post often around here on this site because I am so inexperienced in the business. I am currently in the first year at university studying web design and don't have much to offer in terms of advice or knowledge. Also I am abit nervous about posting questions etc because I look like abit of an idiot. However I would like to get more experience and knowledge. I have a question about the design of a site to the professionals who do this job day in day out.

 

How do you go about designing your sites?

 

I ask this because at the moment for my assignments this is what I personally do, I brainstorm for ideas on content and page structures. I then think about a layout structure and then mess about with the look, colours design etc.

 

I have heard that professionals design sites on photoshop and then slice it up to create their page? Is that true? If so how do I go about starting to do this?

 

Regards and thanks in advance

 

Jake

hey there,

 

firstly, don't worry so much! the whole reason this forum is here is to ask questions! we're all friendly here and there's no such thing as a silly question.

 

personally when i first set about designing a site i take a look at what the site is going to be used for. is it a business? is it a showcase? is it a blog? is it a sports club?

 

once you have this in mind you can then go about thinking what audience you will be targeting. other businesses? customers? kids? age groups?

 

then you can think about what content should be roughly included in the site. not necessarily the words, but the topics. and how much emphasis should be shown to these topics.

 

once all this is planned out and thought about, you can then start thinking about how you would like people to see this content. do you want one page dedicated to each topic? do you want different sections on a page for similar topics? how much space should you give to each section of the page?

 

thinking this way gives you blocks to work with, chunks of content to move around and play with. when you've got a good idea of how you want people to read this content, you can then think about how to encase it within a design. put borders around it etc.

 

this is the best way to get a new design into sizable chunks.

 

as for photoshop, it's all personal preference. some people like to design entirely in photoshop, chop it up and code away. but if you don't follow the first steps i wrote above, even the best people come stuck in places sometimes. (i know i've learnt the hard way!)

 

but again, even doing this, in order to chop up a psd, you need to know what blocks to chop it up into, which will ultimately be defined by your content arrangement.

 

hope this helps

 

Dean

hey there,

 

firstly, don't worry so much! the whole reason this forum is here is to ask questions! we're all friendly here and there's no such thing as a silly question.

 

personally when i first set about designing a site i take a look at what the site is going to be used for. is it a business? is it a showcase? is it a blog? is it a sports club?

 

once you have this in mind you can then go about thinking what audience you will be targeting. other businesses? customers? kids? age groups?

 

then you can think about what content should be roughly included in the site. not necessarily the words, but the topics. and how much emphasis should be shown to these topics.

 

once all this is planned out and thought about, you can then start thinking about how you would like people to see this content. do you want one page dedicated to each topic? do you want different sections on a page for similar topics? how much space should you give to each section of the page?

 

thinking this way gives you blocks to work with, chunks of content to move around and play with. when you've got a good idea of how you want people to read this content, you can then think about how to encase it within a design. put borders around it etc.

 

this is the best way to get a new design into sizable chunks.

 

as for photoshop, it's all personal preference. some people like to design entirely in photoshop, chop it up and code away. but if you don't follow the first steps i wrote above, even the best people come stuck in places sometimes. (i know i've learnt the hard way!)

 

but again, even doing this, in order to chop up a psd, you need to know what blocks to chop it up into, which will ultimately be defined by your content arrangement.

 

hope this helps

 

Dean

 

Yeah thats very helpful thankyou, I also came across another thread with a similar question so I am looking through that aswell.

hey we in the same boat, still study though.

 

if i wanna make some design.. i skecth it in paper first,

and then look around at web galleries..

Once you have your design start looking at it as boxes.

 

Imagine how you would cut and place each image to make the design.

 

HTML containers ie. divs, tables etc are usually blocks, so getting a good idea of how the elements will go together will help when coding.

 

Arrgh wanted to write more but being rushed for dinner lol

I always start on paper first and sketch out how I think the site should look.

 

THen using photoshop, i lay out the page with all the different sections and then go back and add the fine details.

 

It is always best to plan out your design rather than just jump straight into making it.