Hey yall Just doing some research and was wondering how web designers/developers would come across the best way of building a website? This is my example of building my website: So you might have something similar or better. I just want to learn other ways that may help me or whoever else that may have an alternative route then the one I have. P.S I will send a proper example for those who don't understand it. Many thanks in advance CHEERS
I usually get a pad of paper and write down what the site must do. I then open up a text editor and write up the HTML (x if you must, also a little css to give some style (if need be)). Then I would open up a graphics program (gimp / photoshop depending on where I am) and create the graphics. Then I finish up the CSS to give a complete website. If the site needs any server side coding then that usually comes last.
There's one more step that should be talked about and that is image optimization / compression. However i only do psd conversions at this time so i can't comment on the mockup part and building a psd template.
Good topic.. Depends on who the site is for - if it's for me, unless it's a very big / very dynamic site, I'll usually go in and do it off the top of my head, amending as I go. If it's for a client, it'll be assessing the pages needed, writing them down, figuring out the best way to do it. But as for the development, I'll always start in photoshop, draw out my site, figuring where I want menus, creating my backgrounds, creating headers etc. Making it look pretty. Then I take my basic style sheet (with set margins etc) and index file and create a site template, using styles and the images from photoshop. Then it's usually back to photoshop to create any extra bits to make the template look fine. Providing the template validates correctly, I'll cut it up into pieces and use them as PHP includes. Then I'll create the seperate pages, filling the content on each (and usually updating the menu as I go). Finally I'll check it all over and view the site without styles to make sure it looks fine as plain text.
Check this one http://reencoded.com/2008/07/03/building-an-effective-website/ i think it would be the answer to your question..
I just started doing the PSD in slices it works nice.. I never used it for a long time because I had to work on a few were people did too many slices and the people wanted graphics work done on it and it was a pain. But I started doing them with just a few slices and I like it, and it is easy to edit and easy to optimize certain slices more and certain ones less.
I sometimes draw my site layouts before I design them and then design them in photoshop. I then slice it up in photoshop aswell and save each part as a jpeg for web to keep the filesize to a minimum. To develop a site, I always use dreamweaver and CSS.