Building the perfect website requires the marriage of a great idea and strategic execution. Each stage of design is an important building block in the overall success of your site.
Body
The internet is a brand new frontier, in which many individuals and corporations are establishing creative and innovative websites to be viewed in cyberspace. While the inception of any good website begins with a great idea, there are many stages involved with achieving the goal of building a website that will be useful and attractive to web browsers, clients or friends.
The Idea
This stage of the web design process may seem simple but every successful new website begins with a fresh and appealing idea. Once you have come up with a brainchild that is sure to rock the cyber-world forever, take some time to hone it to perfection. Ask yourself a few key questions:
• What can I offer people that visit my website?
• What will set my site apart from the rest?
• How can I best relate to my target niche?
Once you have answered these questions, you will have a clearer overall vision for your web design, as well as a solid concept of the specific content that you will need to build into the site.
Organize Your Site
The number one goal of any new website should be to keep their viewers interested. To this end, it is wise to sit down and sketch out a map of your site that will organize your information into individual pages that your viewer can access during their visit. It is important that every page your viewer visits can offer them a link to another page that can offer them more interesting information or products.
If you do not sit down and organize the many different pages that will be made available on your website, your result is likely to be like an unplanned city, whose streets have no logical rhyme or reason. Conversely, careful initial site map planning can will result in a website that is user-friendly, easy to navigate and attention grabbing on every page.
Sketch Your Site Design
Now that you have a good idea of what your website will offer and how this information will be distributed among many different pages, it is time to begin to design the actual look and feel of your site. Pencil and paper sketches give you the most freedom in your initial design plan. Sketch out each page of your website, beginning with the home page and working your way deeper into your site content. Be sure to give your most important information prime placement and make it larger and more defined than the other content on your page. Pencil in the general aesthetic scheme you would like your site to adhere to, whether it be modern and streamlined or artistic and full of flare.
Begin Computer Design
If all of your planning has been done with a spirit of excellence, the design process should be a simple matter of putting flesh on the bones of your design scheme. You can do this yourself using software such as Photoshop, or you can hire a skilled computer design artist to do it for you.
