Starting out

When you make a new web design. What do you do to make your thoughts flow? Do you open up Photoshop and draw your neat web design in there... er... what do you do?

For me, I just open up Photoshop and draw my template on it, and then start the coding.

I open up Photoshop too. Some people say sketching out a layout on paper helps, but I don't like drawing . After I'm satisfied with the design I do the slicing and HTML. If the site I'm making requires coding, I'd start coding after the HTML is all done but most of my work is just making website templates.

i just start tinkering with Dreamweaver or Frontpage.... i am more of programming person not that good with graphics...

after i get a simple design idea i start coding the backend

i'm a paper person...

aside from the obvious tactics of deciding what i want to include on the site, i map out navigation on paper... old fashioned, but i find it helps make the actual computer designing easier... plus i have something to compare it to in the end... or if i feel lazy, i could hand the paper design off to a friend and get them to graphicalize it (ie, photoshop)

hehe "graphicalize" thats funny

i try to use as little graphics as possible... CSS is my friend, and text gets read alot faster than large amounts of gifs...

I myself has started simple sites from both ends,
It all depends on how I fell,

If I open photoshop and decide that I really don't want to do that, then I'll go to the back-end, either working with mySQL or php.

But it seems I always start with the navigation first in photoshop or code.

I just finished off a site... and the first thing I did was design the layout in Photoshop... I guess the artist in me was awake that night!

I try to visualize things on paper much like MadCowDzz, but at times, I find it a lot easier to just jump into Photoshop and dabble away.

I've never designed a whole site in Photoshop, the slice tool sucks because if you need to add text from Dreamweaver how can you leave a gap in between the image :S - I always use my notepad to jot down features, navigation, and other stuff to have on the site. I also write down the Hex Code of my color schemes So I can remeber it in the future.

CSS is bad however when you want compatibility with NS/Mozilla, etc

Photoshop, sucks..... OMG!

The slice tool doesnt suck, just because you dont fully understand how to use a tool doesnt mean it sucks.

Used in the right way and can save alot of time.

Nah I didn't say PS sucks, I love PS! But I slice things and there is only one way to slice them and it still doesnt work so the slice tool sux IMO. I design interfaces and banners in PS easily though.

The slice tool is for cutting up images, not building sites.
e.g. navigation based on images, rollovers

I almost always design sites completely in Photoshop.... I've never actually thought about doing them on paper.... what a novel idea!!!

I do it because it is quicker IMO, you just get a pencil and a ruler and make loads of designs, and then you add the widths, heights and colors and then you code it and see how it turns out.

I was being facetious




It's purely a personal preference. Tho, to be honest, I've never seen anyone "in the biz" design a site on paper.

im not really "in the biz" though

stumpy: Does working on program flow on paper and writing it out count as design? because I know plenty of people who like to jott their ideas down durring a brainstorm session...