What is your approach to design

manonthemoon

Just Wondering?

I have a couple of new websites to begin at present. I find the inital design very slow.

My own approach is to find a nice looking layout/ structure to a website that i think works and then try and incorporate my own colours with a couple of little tricks of my own. So my question is.............

Who do your approach design?

A bolt from the blue?
Lots of recreational drugs?
Using standard templates?
Following a rigorous structure?

Pepe LeFrits

Depends if i want to do something original or simply another boil-in-the-bag site. If im going for originality, i'll decide what is going to be on the website and draw up a few different layouts in psp. No design specifics in it, just a load of boxes showing where everything could go. Then i'd build the site based on the layout and go where-ever er, inspiration takes me.

Stark

I start from the basics. Put all the information I want in a text file then start laying it out using "meaning" tags. After this I can write a stylesheet to figure out how these tags should be laid out on screen. It's a ground up process.

Graham

I'd take a similar approach to K.Oriordan, work out the info I need to display/navigation etc.

Only difference I'd take is I'd then pass my requirements over to a decent graphic designer (cos I'm useless at that bit).

damnyanks

Design it around what content needs to be put in.

p

Yea, like RC, there I generally do it on paper. I find it works better for me to get away from the computer because it's so slow, and you're more tempted just to rip off someone else's work.

I have a questionaire that I get a client to fill out asking them questions about their companie's image, sites they like, how they want the site ot be used and perceived etc...

Then I brainstorm: http://www.imagine.co.uk/design/design4.html
This is with apiece of paper writing down ideas suggestions complete stream of consciousness stuff. This works better in a team. There is no idea too silly and no critiques during this. Ideas, themes & feels, & very rough sketches.

Once that's done then I go back throuh each idea and play around with it, see if it's useful or not and narrow it down.

Then I storyboard out typical users, and create the site map. I take a look at what content I have and know it as well as time allows.

Once I do that I list what elements are on each page. Now I have a good understanding of what's needed and lots of ideas about the design.

Slowly, then I work and try put them together. (o:

A designer lives or dies by designing a solution to a problem, it's the process that's the key. A good process will make a good designer great, and a bad process will make a good designer mediocre.



- Kevin

AdMMM

I think up a design in my head, then write it down. Code the page, make some Crap graphics and then let a graphics designer edit them to my liking and then the sites ready