Hi everyone.

 

I'm designing a website for my friend and they have quite a few requirements. They need a blog, events/news, music player, video player and a gallery. Everything has to be CMS so I am thinking of going down the Wordpress and Joomla street. But where do I start with the design?

 

I usually do a concept in photoshop and build in dreamweaver, I know what it's/I'm capable of but how can I design the concept without knowing how the plugins will look and work?

 

Could someone tell me how they would go about it or shed some light on the subject?

 

Thanks

What type industry is the website for?

I've done a couple designs in the past using Joomla and it was pretty straight forward to integrate a design around. To me though Joomla is a big big system. I didn't want to use the word bloated, but to me it is.

 

Just started playing around with Wordpress and although I've not done my own theme yet it too looks relatively easy to add your own design.

 

I stopped using Joomla eventually cos whatever feature I wanted to add it was either over the top or not quite what I wanted. So I always code my own stuff as you can produce exactly what the client wants. But that's just me.

 

If ya thinking along the WP route, ya must get this book: Smashing Wordpress: Beyond the Blog. It has a very big section on creating ya own themes so for £12.48 from your friendly 1-day one-click button, it might help you make the decision. Get it anyway cos it's a good read too!

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regs,

Numb

But where do I start with the design?

 

Could someone tell me how they would go about it or shed some light on the subject?

Start with the content !

 

Here's a few tips on the way a lot of pro's do it...

 

1. Create some basic HTML templates, one for each page type, eg home page, blog page, category page, content page

2. Add in dummy content, text, navigation, logo, footer, search boxes etc. For video elements just use a static image as a placeholder for the time being.

3. Add some basic CSS to get your layout about right, eg header/footer, sidebars, content blocks etc, doesn't have to be spot on at the moment

4. Apply some basic text styling, eg font family, sizes, colours, doesn't have to be spot on at the moment

5. Add in linked items so you can navigate through each of your test pages

 

At this point navigate through the pages as if you were a site visitor. Look at each page and see if there's anything missing, eg on your video detail page you might want a list of related videos. Add in any extra content blocks you feel are necessary for the site to function well for the visitor.

 

After a while you'll start to see your site coming together with what's important, ie content!

 

Now go back to your CSS and style everything as you want it without images. Set up text styling, background colours, headings, boxes, forms, this will be your default site styling.

 

Once you've done that you should have a nearly finished set of templates ready to add graphical elements. Now open up your image editor and create your logos, backgrounds, button, icons etc and apply them to your templates/CSS.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Numb, I think I will use Joomla for the task. I had a look at how to make templates last night and it seems do able. I have used Wordpress for blog integrations before but I think it might get messy with all the other features that I need on the site. Plus I want it to be really easy for my friend to upload all her own stuff.

 

Blue Dreamer, I know what your saying about the design process but is it possible to design the music player plugin and add a jquery gallery in Joomla?

 

Thanks

Save yourself some headaches and create your design on top of a template framework, 90% of the work is done already and you can just concentrate on the eye-candy.

I would use Wordpress, its sooooo easy!!! And there are thousands of plugins out there for everything you can think of and 2 clicks and there installed, easy to add in css, not lot of php knowledge required!