3. Designing Your Website
This is where the professionals and the amateurs almost always
go their separate ways. The amateurs get all excited and start
roughing out layouts, designing colour schemes, picking fonts and
making graphics and so on.
If you talk to a professional though, that side of things is the
last thing they worry about!
For a professional web-designer, it start with function and
content -- the user-experience we touched on earlier -- and only
when that is done do they assemble the design elements to compliment
that whole experience.
The good news is, there is a wealth of information on this on
the internet, so amateurs like us can still do a good job of it, if
we take our time, listen to the experts, and learn the rules
before we start breaking them.
Here are a few good guides you can use as a starting point:
Web Design Best
Practices Checklist. This one is not as dry as it sounds, and
is well worth printing out and referring to as you complete each step
of the process.
Website Design Checklist - Good/Bad. This is a similar type checklist,
except it includes specific examples, good and bad, for each of the
design criteria. Again, definitely worth a look before you start ... and
when you think you've finished.
Artisteer Web Design Software.
This is a great little program for coming up with designs for your websites.
You can export the designs as complete website templates, or better still,
complete Wordpress themes, ready to go.
If you are new to all this and looking for an easy way to get started,
you can't go past 'Wordpress'.
You can install it on your web server with a couple of clicks, you then create
a complete 'theme' in Artisteer
and you're ready to add content.
Most people assume it is 'just a blog' but it really is a complete content
management system, with Add-ons and Widgets, that let you add pretty much
any functionality you could possibly need.
You can add photo galleries, ecommerce, advertising options, social media
content, and of course you can add whatever html pages you want with an easy
to use editor. Your imagination is the only limit!
Artisteer is commercial software
and you will need to license it to use the designs you make, but it can still
be a handy way to test ideas & layouts, try different colour schemes etc.
For my money though it's one of the best value programs I've ever bought.
I should point out, this tired old website was NOT designed with Artisteer!
... I'll re-do this one with it ... one day.
Recommended Reading
The
Internet Business Manifesto is a free report by Rich Schefren
well worth reading sooner rather than later. He's known for his keen
insights on where the internet is headed, and how best to take advantage
of emerging trends.
It's an interesting and though provoking read that might give you a
few ah-ha ideas you can apply to your own web business ...
Download Your Free Copy Now
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