purplemonkey Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 I've been thinking about this, as a coder (admittidly a very poor one at the moment), my website design is usually the hardest side of what I have to do when it comes to creating the site. A friend of mine who works as a web dev works as part of a team, some of the members are designers not coders. So he gets to code what they create, this means as long as he can work out how to code it, he ends up with really good looking website. As this is a coders website, I wondered how you go about designing your websites? for example do you do all your own artwork? do you start with a artistic impression of what your site will look like and then code it, or do you code it then glue graphics around it till it looks nice? I'm not saying people are arn't any good at designing, but I think its pretty normal to be either a coder or a designer. not usually both. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 Here's the process I've done in the past, and it's worked great for me (I've been on both sides of the fence): A document containing the website specifications and functionality is created and is fairly detailed on what exactly can and can't happen. Main things such as color schemes, themes and logos are agreed upon after a few different proposals; who should decide that... is up to the team, but typically a full team takes forever to decide and come to an agreement. Keep this to a small number of people. Then the designs for the main pages are mocked up as images, feedback is requested, then appropriate changes are made. This is where the hand off is, whether it is the designers coding static html pages, or the developers slicing from the images as they need the pages... but yeah. Typically for me, the designer codes the html page and then the developers use that base html page to implement into the rest of the site. As for this site, we have a few designers/hybrid designer & coders. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114533 Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnoTheDev Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 What the above post states is the exact same process we follow and is really the general consensus with web design & development. 1. Agree a spec with client & brief suggestions on layout, theme, colours 2. Create mockup screenshots as images 3. Tweak until design is signed off by client 4. Designers convert the screenshots into (X)HTML and establish layout using CSS 5. Templates are passed over to developers to insert dynamic elements The designer should know what parts of the site are dynamic so they do not create a static template for every page that will exist on the site. Usually a blank template is created so a developer can re-use as and when. When the developer has completed testing they hand back to the designer to fix any issues with layout. or the developers slicing from the images as they need the pages I do not think you would get developers doing this. This is purely design work. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114582 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 or the developers slicing from the images as they need the pages I do not think you would get developers doing this. This is purely design work. You'd be surprised how many designers I've run into that refuse to code a .psd into a .html. I do think it is the designers job as well, but sometimes you run across a stubborn mule. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114588 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Username: Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 lol i just make the code and improvise on the design. It usually comes out 'okay' but not anything professional. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114592 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ignace Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 or the developers slicing from the images as they need the pages I do not think you would get developers doing this. This is purely design work. You'd be surprised how many designers I've run into that refuse to code a .psd into a .html. I do think it is the designers job as well, but sometimes you run across a stubborn mule. Or I've seen job ads where a company asked for a graduate MS to transform PSD's into HTML/CSS/JS. Like in the case of KingPhilip we have junior developers bridging the gap between medior/senior developers and the designers (who I think should not care about more then know how to handle Photoshop and the like as they'll just use Photoshop's abilities to slice and transform to HTML/CSS if you ask them too). Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114673 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 they'll just use Photoshop's abilities to slice and transform to HTML/CSS if you ask them too Haha, yeah, they claim to be experts at html/css and then when you ask them to do it they just export from photoshop/fireworks.... sigh. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114678 Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnoTheDev Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 they'll just use Photoshop's abilities to slice and transform to HTML/CSS if you ask them too Haha, yeah, they claim to be experts at html/css and then when you ask them to do it they just export from photoshop/fireworks.... sigh. hmmmm, thats a bit lame for a web designer. I would class just having photoshop skills as graphic design. Our designer is able to work with XHTML, CSS, cross browser testing, image work, sometimes using jquery plugins to work with the DOM, bits of flash, macromedia creative suite of tools, and obviously photoshop. I would class those skills as web design. Any coding, server / client side is the developers area. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114751 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 I usually just come up with a design that *I* like, then email the link to my friends. If I don't get any responses that are nothing more than link to a vomiting smiley, I figure it's good enough. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114799 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Username: Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 I usually just come up with a design that *I* like, then email the link to my friends. If I don't get any responses that are nothing more than link to a vomiting smiley, I figure it's good enough. Made me lol Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/214178-how-do-you-design-your-website/#findComment-1114818 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.