Web Design Workflow
- Started
- Last post
- 3 Responses
- non
What's your workflow for web design? Steps, programs, tools?
- vaxorcist0
call client, do work, call client, get contradictory info, repeat
... ok, I'm joking.. that's how it was once upon a time....for me:
-Business objectives,target market, who approves what,etc
-Paper pre-comps,then determine if we can use a CMS or WP or if it's a new app from scratch, lots of brainstorming,etc...
-Concept approval, make sure mood/vibe is good.
-Objectives and metrics...i.e. how do we know this is good or not, is it going to be approved? head off last-minute redirection here!
-NO PHOTOSHOP COMPS too early! This gets people fixated on certain things that may not be appropriate in final design
-Semi-working rough screenshot Prototype with some code,3 pages or so of semi-real content, we try NOT to use greek text as it causes people to go sideways in meetings and not get the idea...
-THEN THE USUAL DELAY... as client has to get stuff together and there's usually somebody who isn't available but won't delegate.... our job is to keep this moving but not be assholes....
- We do some Illustrator->PSD->HTML comps, pitch 3 layouts or so with 3 levels each... note that we know the pile of content may not quite match our layout ideas so we have to be careful about promises to client... the key is finding the right person on client side who gets it(!)
-Suddenly we get tons of semi-random content in a bunch of random formats, have a few "what were they thinking" moments, have a meeting, client has somebody who gets it, so we get cleaned up content...
-Meanwhile back in the Dev lab.... CMS and Illustrator->PSD->HTML are finally approved by client.. then integrated with new content, usually there are some surprises in the structure, we try to deal with them..
-Then we start using some version control and auto-FTP stuff to make our process semi-auto, with nightly CMS database dumps,etc...
- BattleAxe0
paper and pencil and I start to draw out a layout placing elements and making notes about each element
off to photo shop or illustrator and take the sketch into a prototype level , creating a Layer Folder for each area of the page (top nav, content, icons, etc)
Most of the time I do not mess around and create custom graphics not my specialty so I use a lot of Stock Libs for Icons
as most clients have no idea that a screen shot is not a live website , I just render a full image and load it on the browser so client can see it on the browser , letting them know of coarse its not a web page but an image of the web page
once everyone likes what they see , off to coding , always have them sign off on meeting items , this way I avoid the he said she said (blue, no green)
rinse lather repeat
- non0
more!