Web Design... where do I start?

[thatdomainguy]

Need to make a website for shophours.co.uk

Where do I start? What do I need? Are there any free guides online?

I have absolutely no experience in web design apart from using website builder moonfruit.com

Thanks

 

[monaghan]

You need to sit down and think about what you actually want to do, the logical site structure and so on before you look at the web design product.

Once you know what you want to do you can then decide whether you want to use a CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla etc), an application specific script or a custom designed system and then move forward to a working site.

 

[Edwin]

Or there's always the "pay somebody who knows how" option. Don't forget that's on the table as well... It's not always necessary to have the expertise if you can buy it in instead (which is why I pay an accountant to do my books, a graphic designer to do my logos and brochures, etc.)

 

[Sanjana]

Before starting web designing you should first make a mind theme which type of design you want to make. Use some sketch and paper if you can not imagine for deeply and create deep design setting on the paper. For clarity.

 

[doodlebug]

I don't know about web design but I use an online site maker www.create.net

 

[monaghan]

Or there's always the "pay somebody who knows how" option. Don't forget that's on the table as well...

Agreed, however, you still need to have an idea of what you want your designer to produce for you.

 

[philiporchard]

Thinking about the content of the site, and your objectives should drive your project forward.

Once you've nailed the features, how the site is going to make money etc, then you need to think about the key pages etc.

Once you're at that stage then you can think about decisions like which designer and whether to go for Wordpress etc...

Remember that your development team or graphic designer wont build you a business model!

 

[retired_member32]

i put a lot of thought into the direction of my site ,is it for you only (xhtml) or for a customer (cms ) due to the fact they wouldn't appreciate trawling through html code...i also factor into the equation the value of the domain ,if there is very little traffic or an a unfavourable extension i would just build 5-10 pages on an html build ,something good value with larger returns i would place on a CMS (joomla/wordpress) on it's own hosting account...

if you decide to use a designer...look here

http://www.designforums.co.uk/

good luck with your project

 

[julian]

Before doing any of the shit everyones just said I would make sure the site/domain/idea is even worth bothering with.. and my gut feeling for you is that it's not.

 

[thatdomainguy]

Sounds complicated. Don't really have the money to get someone to do it that's why i was thinking of doing it my self.

deliajen - It's for me

julian - I think it is worth bothering with, it's going to be opening hours for shops where I live. I run a website for my town.

 

[denchomsky]

julian - I think it is worth bothering with, it's going to be opening hours for shops where I live. I run a website for my town.

Hi, How can you run a website for your town if you dont know web design/development?

 

[thatdomainguy]

Hi, How can you run a website for your town if you dont know web design/development?

I use Moonfruit.com -A great piece of software but that wouldn't really work for what I want

 

[julian]

Yes, actually that is a very good idea - I mean after all - does the sex shop shut at 10pm or 11pm on a Friday night?

julian - I think it is worth bothering with, it's going to be opening hours for shops where I live. I run a website for my town.

 

[grantw]

I use Moonfruit.com -A great piece of software but that wouldn't really work for what I want

Teach yourself basic html and have a go yourself:

http://htmldog.com/guides/htmlbeginner/

It'll be much more rewarding and valuable to yourself than a few clicks installing some lazy-ass option such as Wordpress :-|

Grant

 

[monaghan]

Alternatively, why not take a look at something like Wordpress / Joomla or Drupal, get yourself a copy of Artisteer and you can craft templates with no HTML knowledge. Combine this with the wealth of contributed plug-in modules for the main CMS's you can probably make just about any configuration of site with little programming knowledge.

You will of course benefit from the other suggestions about learning HTML and web design.

 

[wb]

Do both answers given by Grant & Alex

WordPress is great but you will have a strong advantage knowing at least some basic HTML when it comes to optimising/editing code to how you want it (especially useful for customising themes).

 

[philiporchard]

Wow... that Artiseer site looks very clever.
Alex have you used it at all?

 

[monaghan]

I've done a few basic Artisteer sites mostly in the older version. I'm just exploring v3 (just gone from beta to release candidate) along with Drupal 7. Development seems quite active, I'm on my 2nd year and it has gone from v1 to v3 in that time with quite a number of intermediate releases.

It is not perfect and you'll never get perfection in a general tool like this, but for a quick site when you have a rough idea of what you want, I can't fault it.

I've only done WP & Drupal sites, but don't see that other templates would be any problem.

 

[bensd]

w3schools.com is also quite good, i used to refer to it a bit when i was learning