| Viewing Single Post From: A few thoughts | |
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| + Bird-E | Jan 15 2006, 05:53 PM |
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Dedicated member
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Hmm, I didnt know if you wanted people to reply or not, or if this was kinda like a retorical question. In answer to your questions- I used to be the type of person that would just hop on frontpage, pop up photoshop and do a quick job of a website. That was only really because I never took webdesign seriously. Last year my work began to show some sort of professionalism, so I made it my goal to learn how to hand code. I learnt about web standards and why we need them, and realised how unorganised and butchered my old webpages seemed (created in frontpage). It really becomes quite easy with practice. My process is as follows- I go straight to my sketchbook, no photoshop, no graphics. Here I plan out the site, whether it be the design, page transitions, graphic ideas, whatever. I usually start with a flow chart of the site- what links are connected to what, and where they lead to, with little comments describing what each page holds. I then begin to work out the design, which usually is more time consuming. As i'm creating the design, i'm visualizing how I can utilize css to construct it (div boxes). I know it sounds corny, but its become second nature to me, and it doesnt take much time. After that, I work on transitions and effects (if its a flash site), but now that I understand the basics of javascript, i'm looking to incorporate moo.fx, some javascript effects. Once the planning has been completed (and I have a solid understanding of what I want), I open up photoshop and begin to flesh it out. I try to put much of my visual design (colour) into div boxes. I see many people make the mistake of opening up photoshop when they're first starting something. If you find that you're asking the question- "I opened up photoshop ready to do some work, but what should I make/do?", then your not 'designing' as such. This question is mostly asked by sig designers, so whether a signature actually requires designing or not, the nature of the work probably allows them to skip the planning stage. I know its a bit brutal, but if you only have a vague idea of what you want, build on that first, instead of stabbing blindly at it with photoshop (and never being able to get it to look right). Finally I code it, incorporating what graphics I need. whoops, I also plan out/add content at this stage. Why do I do it now? Because I type much faster than I handwrite, so I prefer to skip planning it out in my sketchbook. Technically, I have only made websites using pagebuilders like geocities (in my early days), and since then I have never made a complete website. That doesnt make me any less experienced or skilled though, for I have made possibly hundreds of web pages, but not websites. I can also use flash proficiently, both to create websites and to create multimedia presentations, even though I have not made any official sites. sorry if this post dragged on, I kinda have a habit of doing that. |
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| A few thoughts · Discussion | |
2:03 AM Nov 27
