Building a website is easy, right? Well only if you do it right. Here, I am going to look at the pitfalls of creating a website when you do things in the wrong order.
There are 3 main steps you need to take to make any website:
- Decide on a site structure – what pages are needed and how ll the pages are glued together
- Create some content – this makes the site worthwhile!
- Create a design – to make the site look lovely
There are, of course, many ways in which you can order these steps. I have covered the most common below:
The worst one imaginable:
Please, if you are reading this – never, never, NEVER, EVER do this! If you do this, consider making a living designing website templates to sell!
The one where the client messes things up:
All web developers know how clients ruin a website. They have ideas that they saw on someone else’s website that they want you to copy, they don’t like what you’ve done and they don’t know what they DO want, but this is possibly the worst scenario to be in, although sometimes they want a design before they decide what structure they want…
The one which most people do:
I see a lot of web developers favouring this approach. This is because most love to get stuck in with either an awesome design or the coding. Just don’t!
…and finally, the correct way:
Many failings and mistakes have let me to this conclusion, and the reason behind writing this post, so that the rest of you can avoid making similar mistakes.
So in conclusion, below is a flow diagram to get you thinking about the order in which certain things need to be done:
I hope this has helped – comments appreciated…
Tags: web design