Ideas for Web Design by Bernard Peh
This article shares with you the research process when being given a task to
design a website. How does one find ideas for the colors, themes and
inspirations to work on the project?
Whenever a web designer gets a web design project, he or she will require to
take a step back and go through the research process in order to complete the
job. The research process is a tedious process, it determines how well, and
successful will the result of your web design. Ideas for web design will share
with you how to go through that research process smoothly and obtain results.
One fine day, you received a call from some client and he requests you to
design a website for his company. Over the phone, he briefly tells you what his
company is about and asks about the prices, you then fixed an appointment with
him for discussion. You will probably get excited about it and starts to get
more details of the company by checking them on Google, and thinks about some
prelim ideas for the website. At this stage, your research process has already
started.
RETREIVING THE DETAILS:
After meeting up with the client, you get a lot of details that will assist you
in your design process. This details applies even when you are designing a
personal website. 1. Nature of the Company 2. Client Preferences (Example
websites?) 3. Target Audiences (kids? Young adults? Everyone in the world?) 4.
Platform (Flash? Html? Php? Asp? )
By organizing these details, you get a bigger picture of: 1. What are you going
to design? 2. What style of design are you approaching? 3. Whom you should
design for? 4. How will your design work? 5. How will your design please both
the audiences and the client in order to be successful?
DETERMINING THE STYLE:
With the information you have on hand, its time to determine the style. For a
start, you should base on the client's description of his company, his nature
of the company to give a rough gauge on the design style. Examples below:
Example 1: Web Hosting business >> High tech web design, sleek and
professional design Example 2: Dolls and Toys business >> Kiddy, Girly,
Colorful, Fun design
COLOR THEMES:
Having a good and suitable color theme on your web design will give users a
pleasing experience while surfing through the web site you designed. One of the
important techniques is to get a color chart from your local art store or use
some color chooser tools to aid in your color selection. Your color theme will
affect the mood and feel you want to create.
Colors also have their own meanings. For example, white is clean, blue is cool
and corporate, having a white and blue color theme gives you a clean and
corporate web design. Orange and yellow are warm and friendly colors, Grey is
cool, combining a Orange-Grey theme will give you a friendly and fun mood. Dark
colors are also popular among many, because they easily matched other bright
colors. A common match is using a black background and light colored text as a
combination.
There are thousands and one meaning to choose your color theme. Whether your
color theme turns out successful depends heavily on the first step "Determining
the style" of your website.
PHOTOS & GRAPHICS:
After getting the colors done, its time to think about the graphics and images.
As a graphic says a thousand words, it is good to think about how you want to
approach this portion. Here are some recommendations you can try:
1. Stock photos - Some are free, some requires you to pay a certain amount
before providing you with high resolutions image. If your client has the money
and there are suitable photos he would like to use, this is the way to go.
Searching in Google for "stock photos" will give you plenty of results on this.
2. Take your own photos - When budget is involve, usually the project will
require you to take a relevant photos and use them as supporting images on the
website. Having a mid-range camera should do the trick as images for website
are all on low resolution. Seldom there is a chance for you to use an image
more than 640 x 480 pixels.
3. Creating Graphics Images - A web design will always need custom-made
graphics images. For example, icons for a Shoe section, button for submitting
information. You will need some skills in creating the graphics of your needs,
or you will feel stuck while designing. Consider looking for tutorials on
creating certain effects, like rounded corners, Mac alike buttons, pattern
backgrounds and more. Learn about vector graphics tool like Adobe Illustrator
and Macromedia Fireworks. They can help you to create graphics, mockups and
layout fast and efficiently. This will greatly aid in your next web design
project.
INSPIRATION AND REFERENCES:
If you already have some inspiration on how to design the layout, great, but if
you do not, consider looking at related websites for some references on how
they are being done. A search in Google also reveals some websites of the same
genre. You can also check out ready-made templates as well. I am not teaching
you to copy exactly, but as a new learner, you should take reference and see
how they are being designed. www.sitecritic.net has alot of website reviews by
different web designers all over the world and is worth taking a look.
Why bother looking at them? Reference sites will give you ideas on usability,
color theme, ideas on relevant images, navigation, features and many more
guides to work on your web design project. Always consider them as useful
references to help you whenever you need inspiration and ideas for your web
design. It is all about looking more, reading more and getting your eyes and
brain more exposed to the web design styles.
Final Say
I hope this article has been helpful to give you some ideas for your next web
design project. In this web design industry, it is a never ending journey of
learning. By reading more and seeing how others create, you will be more aware
the next time you design your client's or your own web site.
About the Author
Sitecritic Web Design Ideas
is formed by a group of web addicts, mainly volunteers from all over the world.
Our goal is to create a community of web designers and developers who share the
common interest in bringing out the best in Web Design.
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