The Complete Web Design Process in Easy Steps
Building a website or creating it on the market to the customers can be a painful job. We have crafted a 7 step web design process, to solve your challenges along the way. This article ideal for you, to standardize your process in designing a website, whether you are a freelancer or business owner launching a wordpress site for yourself or your clients.
STEP 1: Goal-setting
You must set a goal for your websites! What website goals should you set?
- Strive for a design that’s user-friendly and beautiful.
- Create a site that targets the appropriate audience.
- Look at websites you like
- Design a user-interface that flows freely, allowing users to navigate easily and find what they need quickly and efficiently.
- Give the client what they want plus what they need.
STEP 2: Branding
Branding, by definition, is a marketing practice in which a company creates a name, symbol, or design that is easily identifiable as belonging to the company. We all love picking a name, comparing different color options, fonts, and, above all else, getting a logo designed!
- Create a Brand Identity
- Go with name and domain first
- Get a logo
Your URL is the first thing your visitors will see. A suitable domain name can make a positive and lasting impression, while a terrible domain name can send visitors running.
Your logo is one of the first things people notice when they visit a website. Your logo is a key part of your brand identity.
STEP 3: Website Copy
Without defined content, it is difficult to structure the design. Creating create the content of your pages at the early stages makes the web design easier.
- Design your homepage first
- Create content for your other must-have pages
- Create the placeholder content
- Go with Web standards
A simple homepage design welcomes your audience to your site, tells them what you want them to do next, and allows them to explore your site in more depth. Many of your website visitors will find your homepage first. With that in mind, you need to make a solid first impression.
Web standards such as navigation menu at the top, cart icon at the top right corner, enhances the user experience and makes it obvious to easily access what they are looking for.
First the home page and then structure the pages and where you will put things specifically.
STEP 4: Website Structure
Structuring your website is crucial for both its usability and findability. The better your site structure, the better your chance of ranking higher in the search engines. Why structure matters
- Build your menus and navigation
- Use web standards
- Build your site with site links.
The more appealing your site to users, the more appealing it is to search engines. A good site structure means significant user experience & good SEO.
STEP 5: Mockup
A mockup is almost a complete design. It’s an intermediary step between a blank screen and the final design in all its glory. This allows you to make sure that your page structures follow the right principles and that your goals get are met.
- Build a mockup for each page type
There are lots of ways to create a website mockup. There are a couple of ways you can approach this task using end-to-end UX tools, mockup tools, pre-built websites, graphic design tools, as well as coded designs.
STEP 6: Design & Develop
Finally, it’s time to get hands to work and build the website!
At this stage, the path is pretty much set by all the steps that came before. You have your goals. You know who your audience is. You know who the competition is. You have your mockups and your navigation structure ready. You have your brand identity, color scheme, and logo. It’s prime time to put all these things to work!
STEP 7: Go Live
This is time to make your site visible to the public!
This step involves installing the site on the final production server. After your site is live, there are numerous best practices to follow to make sure your website engages and brings in customers.
• Your website launch checklist
• Tweak and improve
Truly, post-launch analysis is when the actual work begins which includes checking links and content, making sure the site is accessible and use visitor feedback to make improvements