Designing your own site
May 29, 2008
So let’s get down and dirty here.
You are running really tight, budget wise, and need to do your designing yourself. Or maybe you just WANT to design your own site because you know you have the skill to do it. At least you have a bit of HTML knowledge and believe you have what it takes to get your site off the ground.
OK, let’s get some basic stuff in line.
First of all, take the time to outline your site. By this, I mean take the time to actually get a big piece of poster board and draw out the pages of your site. On this piece of paper it’s not super important to have the actual layout of each page, but more importantly a loose knit web of how the pages are going to link to each other within the site.
Why the physical drawing? It’s an awesome reference tool to put on your wall when building your site. It will keep you focused with your interlinking, especially if your site is extremely large and complex. It’s also a good idea to practice this technique if you intend to interlink other sites as a larger web of sites. Keeping track of how the sites link to each other.
Now, when that’s done, you need to design your basic layout. You can do this in Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc. Whatever tool you want to use. I’m a dinosaur and still use notepad to code most everything, but I do take the time to layout the pages in Photoshop first. This is for two reasons.
One, I have the basic layout of the site. I know where I’m going to put everything. Coding the site is much easier with this type of reference. Nothing is worse than staring at a blank page wondering where you are going to start coding. If you have an idea to look at, coding the page is fairly simple.
Two, I can create the basic images I need to do the initial design. This is helpful for client sites because I can use this image as a mockup for the clients approval prior to digging in and doing much coding on the site. If they like the direction and give me approval, I can then steam forward at a pretty fast rate and get the site done. If not, I haven’t spent a week coding the site for nothing. All I have invested time wise is the time in Photoshop.
So there you have the basic initial steps for designing your own website. Yes, there is much more to it, and this is a very very basic head start, but it will get you going in the right direction.
Or, you can call us and we’d be happy to take the reins and help you build your project.
Chuck Crawford
559-761-0910
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