Effective website design requires great attention to detail – it’s not child’s play. Most people think that the real work lies in coding, but that’s only a half-truth.
Of course, incorporating technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS help to shape the website and make it attractive. But that’s doesn’t mean other processes such as content gathering, planning, and generation are any less important.
Scroll down to learn the easiest step-by-step process to design a website for your clients.
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1. Idea generation
Source: Photo by Daria Nepriakhina
This first stage lays the foundation and reveals how the website will look after completion. The idea is to gather information about your client’s business including their core goals, purpose, and target audience.
At the same time, you also want to look at the approach taken by the competition as far as web design is concerned.
Other relevant questions to seek answers for at this stage include the internal link building strategy the client wants to implement, number of pages, content type, and target audience.
2. Planning
After gathering all the necessary information on how the website should look like, it’s time to create a sitemap and a wireframe.
The former is essential at this stage as it determines whether or not the final design will be user-friendly. It interconnects and provides information about pages, videos, and other content on the website.
A wireframe, on the other side, draws a picture of the visual descriptions. This is where you prototype the website to gauge the quality of its user experience before getting into the actual design.
3. Website Design and development
If your client approves the design and all other planned work, it’s time to get down to business. The client’s target audience should dictate the entire website development and design process.
For example, a school website will certainly be different from an e-commerce one.
You should also polish features like the theme, color contrast, image and video optimization, and the page layout.
After completion, send the layout to the client for another round of feedback. If they’re not happy or unsure about some aspects of the design, discuss it with them, and be willing to make amends.
4. Deployment
Source: Photo by Sigmund
Depending on the contractual terms, you may deploy the server before handing over the website officially to your client.
If that’s the case, it is important that you take all the necessary security precautions to protect the server and the website in general.
You might also want to cross-check the files, media handling, and the user accounts the website needs to function as intended.
And that’s all. Kudos! You can now hand over the complete website to your client.
Wrap-up
Designing a client website shouldn’t be as hard as learning Japanese algebra. It all boils down to generating ideas for and from your client, planning, designing and developing, and deploying the server.
Hopefully, you’ve picked several actionable tips in this quick guide on how you can set up a website effortlessly. If you have any questions or need clarification on anything, we’re happy to answer you in the comments below.
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