Website designing was once a very technical task and was left to experts. This has seen a tremendous change in the past two decades. You can now build your own website without any web design or coding skills, as you can literally drag and drop elements to add them to your site and develop a Web design. If designing a website is still too tedious for you, you can also use a website template, and then customize your content on it. It really is that easy.
Building your first website might seem like a daunting task at first. Even website design using templates can be really stressful if not properly planned and executed. You can try to practice by trying your hand at a smaller website first. Try making and designing a blog site or a portfolio of your art pieces, photography or write ups. This will give you an idea of how these web design platforms work.
Here are a few tips that you can use as a beginner to develop a Web design with ease.
Table of Contents
Plan your Website
Before you begin to develop a Web design and think of the ideal User Experience/User Interface. User Interface and User Experience i.e., UI and UX define the interaction of the user with the website. It is crucial to have easy navigation on your website in order to provide a good user response. Whilst UI and UX are very similar sounding, there is a huge difference between them. UX deals with the overall design, UI is more specific about the details, like the size and the positioning of the elements and effortless website navigation. An easier way to approach this step is to roughly make a flowchart for the user navigation. This will allow you to form a basic picture of how your website might look like later.
It is also helpful to break down your goal into smaller tasks, and work on them consistently rather than setting up overwhelming goals and then getting disappointed.
Do your Research
It is great to be original, but to be able to be good enough, you must know and appreciate the best. The process of designing a website is also about knowing and applying aspects of the websites that have proven results. This process can be done effortlessly. Whenever you’re browsing the internet, just make sure to take note of what you like and dislike in the websites you visit. There are sometimes a few ‘Wow!’ elements you might notice on the sites you visit. And sometimes there are aspects of a site that make you not want to continue browsing. Make sure you take note of all of these features, good and bad, so that you can use them to your advantage when creating your own website.
Look for the latest themes and typography. Incorporating pieces of fine arts and creative elements adds to the panache of the website. It is easy to be impressed by the designs you see, but remembering the utility and purpose is also crucial.
Choose a basic web design for starters
It is important to choose a simple and basic design to follow at first. Complicated designs take some experience to execute. Although with drag and drop components and size adjustment automation it can be easy to work with. Consistency and uniformity within the design and integration of all components is a very important trait of a good website. Defining a central theme is integral to any website. Using a website template makes it easy to focus only on the content and customize your preference, but make sure to customize and personalize it so that it doesn’t end up looking like other sites out there.
Keep Content Handy
Website design does not only comprise of the theme but also the visual graphics and written content. This means the content is as important. Website content must be catchy, interesting, and action provoking. Your website can either be a collection of pictures with descriptions, or a place where you sell your product. A good piece of copywriting will ensure that your website performs. It is important to have your content ready before designing your website since planning your design is also about accommodating your content.
Further, having a content management system is crucial in order to have a proper content schedule for further design changes or additions. Different types of websites require different content strategies. You may need to post daily or only update once in a while, depending on your needs and requirements.
Things to remember
In brief, website design has now become a very easy process. And using various free website design tools is a great way to get started. In today’s day and age building a website is like playing with Legos. You can have a central idea and play around it whilst fitting different pieces together beautifully. The only prerequisite to it is to be creative and patient. Your website is basically a functional art piece.
Web design is not a one-time process and needs constant updating. Making regular changes is very important and necessary.