web designers question

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guys, ive decided to get into website design

my question is before you design a website do you sketch down on paper what you are looking for or do you just go straight into photoshop and start designing with a rough idea in your head of what you want?
 
Soldato
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Surely that depends on how you work? Some people will prefer to sketch out a design then pop it onto photoshop. Some will grab photoshop and go mad.
 
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guys, ive decided to get into website design [...]
As a career choice? Can't say I recommend it - it won't make you rich, and you'll need the skin of an elephant.

Not literally.

[...] my question is before you design a website do you sketch down on paper what you are looking for or do you just go straight into photoshop and start designing with a rough idea in your head of what you want?
In my experience, the longer you can work on the design before touching Photoshop, the better the site will be. This means you spend more time on how the site works and less on how it looks.

So yeah: do lots of paper-based sketching. It doesn't have to look good; its purpose is to provide you with insights regarding user journeys, content placement, navigation, accessibility and so on. The more you understand about how the site is supposed to work, the less time you'll spend blindly pushing pixels about.
 
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I'd say on the design side to get noticed nowadays, you'd need to pull off some pretty spectacular designs. E.g. the standard of some sites at cssmania.com

Everyone and their dog wants to be a web designer. I wouldn't bother unless you are talented and passionate.

Yup and everyone has a friend how m'can do web stuff' (obviously meaning they can do anything).
 
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plus more and more diy products are coming out, so a lot of people will be using these. that said ithink this is the case with most indutries. you have to have something unique to set yourself as better then the compeition, but that doesn't mean money can't be made from it. good luck op with your future as a web designer.
 
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i dont plan on being a coder, just a designer

ive good knowledge of photoshop and i think i can easily produce sites that match cssmania, problem is the time it will consume and the patience required
 
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Se7ven said:
so people expect the whole PSD, copyright and code for what... $100?

surely thats not worth it
The worrying thing about your response is that it implies that you think $100 for 'just' PSDs and copyright is worth it and would be happy to work for that. :eek:

Just do a site or two for fun first, in whatever way seems best to you. If that means the 'traditional' route of pushing pixels around in Photoshop until all the Lorem Ipsums on your home page line up, then fine - you'll still be learning :)


msm722 said:
Web design is more to do with the look and layout of a webpage. Developers take care of the coding.
I don't agree. But this probably isn't the thread for another 'designer/developer considerations and responsibilities' opinion slugfest :)
 
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If you're serious about web development, I'd recommend getting a handle on design as well as learning how to code properly.

I know graphic designers that have tried and failed to get into web development. Although they can use Photoshop and know the basics of Dreamweaver, they don't have a handle on how to code a dynamic site - which is what most people/companies want these days.

On the flip-side, I know programmers that can knock out code in their sleep, but they have no idea what constitutes good design.

A freelance web developer needs both these days - in my opinion. I'm a programmer for the NHS, but I take on freelance web development projects in my spare time. I get good feedback about my design; but I also know how to code properly and I can create pretty complex 'content management systems' (CMS) in PHP which is almost essential; otherwise you just can't be flexible enough to take on dynamic bespoke projects.

I don't want to discourage you, but I urge you to try and cover all your bases and learn how to code properly.
 

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Whilst having a natural flare for web design will help you up a few steps, it's possible to learn it. One step at a time, though, I would recommend. Learn HTML and CSS, then learn a bit of javascript, then download mootools and save yourself about 10 years every year. Don't worry about your talent as a designer, because for most intents and purposes, designers know nothing about designing for the web.

Your knowledge in photoshop will probably help you. Knock up some simple wireframes (just coloured boxes, positioned all weirdly) then make that into HTML and CSS to teach yourself what is possible in the various browsers you'll be supporting. Once you're able to confidently, quickly and accurately convert a template to an HTML and CSS page/set of pages, start to transpose your way of working to designing in-browser. Because the market is moving so quickly at the moment, and the browsers it's still relatively important to support continue to be very popular (but archaic), I think it's important to present your designs in the manner in which they will end up. A PSD template in some respects is a pipe dream, and if you find that something can't universally be achieved, then expectations aren't met and people get disappointed.

Buuuuut, I'm getting way ahead of myself.

As a big aside, that saying "jack of all trades, master of none" is very true. Your life will be a lot easier if you learn simple scripting techniques like server side includes, but application development and interface design are akin to car concept drawing and car manufacture. A designer will have to have a handle on what is possible, but they won't need to know how to do it - it's not their job! That's not to say that you can't be a good designer and a good coder, but you probably want to be great and I'm yet to meet anyone who is really great at both. Like I said, it's not impossible, but they're two totally different kettles of fish.

The only really grey area here, to be honest, is the whole "do developers do HTML and CSS, or is that a designer job?" - the answer, in my experience, is "both should be able to do both to a high standard". If you call yourself a web designer, but you don't know HTML and CSS, you basically draw pictures of websites. Some people make a career from that, but I bet most of them aren't very busy!! If you're a web developer and you don't know HTML and CSS, that code you're writing, what exactly is it doing?!

I've waffled on too long, you basically only need the first 2 paragraphs, but I've written too much to delete all this now!
 
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