The Web Design

The web design is one of the most exciting phases of the web design process. This is where the creative ideas and information from the project brief are tossed around and worked into a design. Throughout this process you will start to visualise what the website is going to look like.

Wireframes

Larger websites often require wireframes to be drawn up. Wireframes are simple diagrammatic drawings that show the layout of website pages and the placement of functionality on those pages. Wireframes help the designer and client understand the functional positioning of the website components and the layout of the web pages. We will go into greater detail on Wireframes in an upcoming article.

Web Designer

The homepage is where the web design usually begins. A web designer will combine the information you gave them regarding who you are, what functionality you want and the look and feel you’re aiming for. This information is creatively put into the initial design concepts and a mockup of the website home page will be created for review.

Design Mockups

Once the first mockup is presented to you, take your time and have a good look over it. It’s important to give the designer as much feedback as possible whether it’s good or bad. It’s best to start with what components you like about the web design and then what you don’t like about the design. The feedback should be constructive, so make sure that if you’re describing something you do or don’t like, outline what you do like about it and what you don’t like about it. Remember to be descriptive with your feedback, write comments and notes, draw on the design with highlighters and talk to your project manager and or designer about your thoughts. This can go a long way to helping the web designer improve the parts of the web page that you don’t like or want changed.

Each web page concept can usually require 2 or 3 revisions before it’s perfect for the client and or company.

Internal Pages

The internal pages are the next step for the web designer. The numbers of internal pages that require a unique design concept depends on the size and complexity of the website. Most small websites will only require one internal page to be presented in the mockup. The internal pages generally come together much more quickly than the home page as all of the basic styling, such as the header and footer of each page, has already been created. Reviewing the design for an internal page is exactly the same process as on the home page. Provide feedback with what you like, don’t like and why.

Design Handover

Once the designs for the internal pages have been completed, the digital agency is ready to start the web development phase. This is where the web designer hands over the design to the web developer to be made into a functional website.

The project brief and web design are the phases of the website creation that require the most interaction and feedback from the client. Depending on the size of the website, this can often be the slowest part of the entire process. The good news is from here on in it’s up to the digital agency to make the newly created design into a working website.

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