Web Design Tips
I have been doing web design for about five years now. I started doing web design as a side job in college, and it turned out to be something I continued to do as a fulltime job once I graduated. Through all of this time, I have learned a great deal of lessons. The lessons I learned have been the hard way, but I?d like to share a few of them with you so you can learn some the easy way. The tips I have focus on the client; from determining what they do and don?t like to hammering out the specifications for the web site, I?ll relate to you some of the experiences I?ve had and my best practices.
My absolute best practice, which I highly recommend to every designer, is to ask the client to provide you with a document that displays a few of their favorite web sites. Underneath each URL, ask them to provide a paragraph or two of why they like the site so much. Tell them to be as specific as possible. Also, have them include any bits about the site that they actually don?t like. This document will help you greatly in crafting your design for the client. By receiving this, you are getting a glimpse at the client?s tastes; you?re seeing exactly what they like and can tailor your design to what they like.
Just as I capture their favorite websites in the same niche, I also have them provide in the same document a list of the other sites in the same niche and that they do not like. This does the opposite for me, it lets me know the design elements that they do not like. Again, they provide a paragraph or two about why they do not like those sites. These documents are so valuable because even before you have started to design you already know of some of the things that the client really likes and that the client really does not like.
Another key eve aspect of a web site that you should dedicate a good amount of effort and studying on is navigation. The navigation is critical to the usability of the site and thus it demands that you fully understand what the client wants. After understanding this you want to develop the cleanest method to organize all of their information. Once you have the client lock into the peaches that they want in the hierarchy of how to let the navigation, you can really begin to think about where you?ll place the navigation on the web site.
These tips may seem kind of obvious, but they weren?t things that I was always thinking about when I first started doing web design. I was always focused on churning out the best designed rather than focusing on a designed that matches the client?s likes and dislikes. This method of focusing on their likes, dislikes, and navigation has drastically reduced the amount of revisions I need to do before designing something that the client absolutely loves. Hopefully these tips will help you become a better designer too.
