This post is divided into 3 parts and this is our Part 1: Enjoy!
Before we use some of the important steps in creating a professional web design and website, the queries that follow must be answered: What composes a “competitive web design?” Generally, a web designer or web design firm demands to offer a competitive web design services for their customers. Nevertheless, are they supposed to encourage “web design services” than “competitive web design services”? When estimating the competitiveness of a web design and a website, one must remember the following steps:
Numerous web design operations
Plan joint tools (if plan has more than one member)
Superior quality of designs
Consciousness of the detail
Current web design technology (CSS)
Carefully written, catches one’s interest, no grammar errors
Availability
XHTML and CSS authentication (clean code)
Compliant of the standards
Optimization
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) amiable
Improper use of Flash, Java Script, and sound effects
To put it clearly, what divides competitive web design is, if the designer or the web design firm follows the steps mentioned above in designing or making a web site. Aside from compensating for an honored companies name and reputation, the things listed above are why competitive web design services are more costly than the regular web designs. You’re getting the entirety of web design professionalism that will for sure shimmer through once the website’s done and shown to the public.
The good thing is, you don’t need to get a competitive web design firm or a professional web designer if you want a competitive web design and website. In spite of the fact that there is a huge deal of tasks involved, if you’d want to try to do the massive lifting on your own, then the web design tips below will help you make a competitive web design and website.
See: You might be surprised why a professional web design firm would offer their procedures and professional web design “checklist” without any cost. The answer is very simple: there’s a lot of time in a day and we can’t competitively design every website in the whole world. The more high-quality, competitive websites there are in the cyber world, the happier we as competitive web designers and lovers of websites will be.
Roughly speaking, there is just way too much rubbish out there. Let’s get moving.
Step 1: Numerous web design operations
We have already created a vast article on the keys of a competitive web design process, so we will just list some of the article’s fundamental points for the purpose of avoiding unnecessary repetitions.
Stage 1: Formulation and plotting (flowcharts)
When making a website, one should avoid starting the process inside of a text editor (BBedit) or website builder application (Dreamweaver, GoLive, etc). The process should start on a scrap of paper or within flowchart software. Wikipedia defines flowchart as:
A diagram representation of an algorithm or a process.
In layman’s term, a flowchart gives a perceptible chart showing the structure of your website. How many navigational entries will your website have? What will be these entries called? Will there be any pages included in the main pages? What can we call them? By plotting out your website using a flowchart, you get an advantage on:
Organization of data
Convenience in utilization
Verifying the size of the content needed
Stage 2: Modeling (wireframes)
In the stage of molding, unchanging “wireframe” mock-ups are made for each single web page.
To make wireframes, one may utilize either:
Pencil and paper
Mock-up software like Adobe Photoshop or OmniGraffle
Professional
These wireframes hold bare-bones skeleton which shows the arrangement of a particular web page. Where will the logo be placed? Where will be the content placed? Are there going to be bread crumbs? Are you going to put a login box? Each of these queries (and a lot more) is answered in the stage of modeling. Some of the things one should consider in creating wireframes:
Be sure to put all necessary elements that will be utilized (navigation, logo, content placement, images/video placement, search box, login box, breadcrumbs, etc.)
Consider the flowchart you made in the first stage.
No using of graphics- wireframes are intended to be bare-bones: circles/boxes/ovals which shows the placement of things
Use text only to tag the elements; don’t use body text (that will be for the third stage)
Concentrate on tidy, well-organized, user-friendly layout; avoid messy layouts
Stage 3: Execution
This is the third stage in our professional web design process which contains:
Originating the graphical user interface (GUI), it is also known as the design
Originating the content
Changing the web designs from icons into code (markup) which web browsers will be utilized to introduce your website on the Internet
In the last stage, consider both the flowcharts made in Stage 1 and the wireframe mockups made in the second stage to make the final page layouts and designs. The outline should be finished in Photoshop or whatever type of image editing software you prefer to use because it is complicated to make some changes on the design after it has been changed into (markup) code.
Believe us, process makes it perfect.
Observing a well- formed web design procedure is by far one of the most important steps that many web designers opt to ignore. By observing a web design procedure like the one we have just described, you extend the probability that your web site will orderly and efficient; can be navigated easily, and user-friendly. If you’re going to skip any of the entries in our professional web design checklist, make certain that the web design process is not included.
Step 2: Plan joint tools
See: If you’re working on your project alone, then you it’s alright if you don’t take this step. Plan joint tools or project collaboration tools are only suitable for projects which have two or more members involved.
Having communication is of the essential elements in a project. When two or more people are making a website, there are usually few emails being sent back and forth to each and every member. The more e-mails traded, the more extensive it can take to look for a certain e-mail and more conducive to lose important bits of information. This is one of the huge problems that our professional web design firms faced when we first started – there wasn’t an easy way to make the e-mails, attachments, milestones, etc. in order.
Gratefully, after a bit of researches, we found out a plan join tool called Basecamp. This came from the Basecamp website:
Proposals don’t fail from the absence of charts, graphs, stats, or reports; they fail from the absence of clear communication. Basecamp untangles this dilemma by giving tools tailored to amend the communication between members working together on a certain project.
Basecamp (and plan joint tools like it) permits multiple users to access a website which saves all of the messages, milestones, files that were uploaded, to-do lists, time it takes to finish parts of the project, etc. that are linked with a project. No more sending out of e-mails. Everything is protected on the Basecamp servers. You will only be receiving e-mails that notify you when something has been contributed or changed in the project.
Basecamp has available packages that can be adjusted to suit your needs. You can sign up for free if you will only use Basecamp for one project at a time. However, on the free version, uploading of files is not allowed. On the other hand, you can control up to three projects at once, for a small amount of $12/month, have 250 megabytes of file upload space, have boundless people and customers, have a real-time chat that can be easily merged into Basecamp, and a lot more.
Nothing can beat a web application like Basecamp when it comes to project collaboration and communication. If you’re sincere about your project and crave to have the best communication possible, then Basecamp is a must try. A plan joint tool like Basecamp is very useful for competitive web design firm which has a lot of projects and customers at any given time. For project collaboration, there is merely no better option to communicate.
Plug over.
Step 3: Superior quality of designs
There is no answer in determining who and what influences a “high quality design”. There are a lot of times when something that is appealing for you may not be appealing to other people. Despite this, there are a lot of things that a superior or high quality design should possess:
Balance. Balance refers to beequalorproportionate to. An equal distribution of heavy and light components on a page.
Unity. It keeps all the elements that are alike and those that are different apart in a website. Everything should be pulled into one structured whole.
Emphasis. It requires the main points where the eye is drawn into the outline; it is also known as ‘focal points’.
Contrast. Not just differentiating color, but also differentiating shapes, sizes, textures and even typography.
Rhythm. It is also known as a patterned repetition, it brings internal harmony into your web design.
You can browse more about the five fundamentals of web design, since this is a wide topic and not all can be fully covered.
Besides these five basic elements of web design, knowledge overload is one of the immense killers of a website design. Designers occasionally neglect the saying “less is more” and apparently believe that the more information that is filled on the page, the better it will be. Don’t be deceived of knowledge overload. Keep your plan as neat as possible. Provide diverse topics their own dedicated web pages. One of the huge causes for knowledge or information overload is not achieving success in planning out your website design by using flowcharts and wireframes mentioned above in the first step: Numerous web design operations. Keep in mind: white space is not really a bad thing. In reality, white space is your confidant, especially when making a competitive web design. Professional designers who have achieved success learn how to use white, hostile space in favor of them, and make it a fundamental element of the design.
Step 4: Consciousness of the detail
When competitively designing a website, every small item is thought out and plotted. Should there be a mark above the headers, and if so, why? If you use whole ended corners for your main body, should you be harmonious and use whole ended corners for the rest? Does your logo look superior with a reflection below? The exclusive way to answer any of these queries is to research. Occasionally the best outcomes come from unintentional research. Don’t consistently be delighted with the initial design. Work to increase the value upon the design and with a few alterations, each time questioning yourself “What can be accomplished to make the design look superior?”, be more harmonious, and more importantly, provide your website a sturdy identity and image.
If we say “detail”, we’re not just speaking about graphic design elements. No, graphic design is just the summit of an iceberg. We’re also speaking about typography (font faces i.e. Arial , Verdana, Trebuchet MS, font sizes i.e. 10 pixels, 12 pixels, 18 pixels, font effect/style i.e. bold, underlined, italic, font placement), the utilization of hostile space, and other components of design.
Consciousness of the detail is significant because it is often the details in your design which cause your website to stand out from competitors (or from other websites). People get annoyed with the same old design – give them something unique, diverse, and pleasing and they will definitely come back and visit the website again. Heck, they may even become aroused by your design.
Always keep in mind: Less is more. Use details, but don’t misapply details.
Read Part 2