SETTING UP THE SITE
Communicate With Your Clients
The first, and most important step in any design project is effectively
determining what the client wants. Many web designers have suffered untold
hours of design toil, only to be told by the client, "Well, thats not really
the style I was looking for".
There are some important steps and questions you should follow
to make sure that you start your work off on the right foot. This section of
our web design course shows you what to do!
Ask the Client About What They Want
It is important to ask. Many new web designers assume that
they know best. That may be true, but if the client doesnt like what youve
done, they wont pay.
A downloadable "Client Qualification Questionnaire" can be
found here in MS word format:
http://www.awdsf.com/homework/dw3/form_printable.zip
The questionnaire covers all of the basic questions (and
some of the not so basic ones) that you should ask your client.
Tell Your Clients About What You Want
If you have a certain style that youre not willing to
compromise, let the client know right up front. Remember, your first couple of
jobs are going to be heavily used to get your next couple of jobs. If the
client wants you to do something that you dont think is a good idea, tell
them, and tell them why. Be patient and teach them a little about web design.
No one else will. If they are insistent and you dont want to compromise, refer
them to another web designer. Web designers often get referrals from other web
designers. Its a good idea to build up working relationships with people who
have a different style than you do.
Defining Goals (clients vs. users)
You must be very careful to define your goals when setting
up a site. What does your client want out of the site? More importantly, what
do users want out of the site? Often, designers get so wrapped up in giving the
client what he wants, that they forget to make the site user friendly and
useful. Sometimes the clients ideas are not the best. Patiently explain your
ideas and remind the client that the happier their users are the more
successful the site will be.
Build a Site Map
It is very important to lay out the entire structure of the
site before you begin work. Your site must be very easy to navigate and important
pages can not be buried too deeply. You can build a site map with software such
as Inspiration, by Inspiration Software, or you can simply draw it by hand. The
site map below was created in Microsoft PowerPoint:
Easy DesignAsk for Artwork
Sometimes much of your design work is already
done for you. Ask the clients if there is printed material that theyd like you
to work from. Ive often found that clients want a "Design Copy" of their
brochure. Most of your time will be spent designing the look and feel of the
site, not actually building it. If a client already has the "look and feel"
ready for you, youre very happy indeed! Ask your clients for any printed
material they have, including brochures, letterhead, and that sort of thing.
One useful technique is to ask the client for a number of
sites that represent the "feel" that they want their site to have. Youll be
able to glean a good understanding of what your client likes and dislikes from
these sites.
Site Comps
You should provide your client with a number of different
visual ideas for their site. The comps should represent color and layout ideas,
but do not need to have all text placed or the buttons labels. By all means,
do not work up a totally working model for your site comps. Present clients
with a static image created in a program like PhotoShop, Illustrator, or
Fireworks. You can even present hand drawings as comps if you are a talented
artist.
Building a Storyboard for Your Site
Before Hollywood actually starts filming a picture, the
whole narrative is laid out in a series of drawings called a storyboard. A
storyboard illustrates key moments in the film and helps to give film makers a
good sense of their story flow.
It is becoming common for Web Designers to storyboard their
site. The sketches include placement of text and graphics. The pages are then
usually laid out in the same manner as the site map.
Use Templates
A thirty-page site does not usually have thirty unique
pages. Such a site would consist of a unique homepage and a couple of other
generic pages that are to be used as templates. These template pages are
pre-built by the web designer with navigation bars and basic layout already
set. The content area is left blank and is filled in when needed. The template
pages can be re-used again and again. Building sites with templates is not
cheating. Templates provide for site continuality and upgradability. The site
for the Academy's web design course
uses a flash
homepage, and a single html templates for the secondary pages!
Site File Structure
Youll remember that your entire website will be kept in one
folder on your hard drive, called the "root folder". What other folders are
needed inside the root folder? You can actually organize your pages however you
want, but convention dictates a few common folders. You should always keep
these folders in your site, as it is important to be seen as professional.
Folders Your Site Should Have:
1. images
- You dont want a bunch of messy images floating around in your root folder.
You should always have at least one folder designated for images. In larger
sites there can be thousands of images. The pages may be worked on by a number
of different designers. To make things easier, usually each page in a larger
site will have its own image folder.
2. cgi-bin
If you are going to be using CGIs on your site, you must have a
cgi-bin. You should, of course, store all of your CGI programs here. It is
important that you call the cgi-bin "cgi-bin", as some servers run custom
security programs that only allow users to access CGIs in an appropriately
labeled folder.
3. original_artwork
You should always store your original artwork on the server for future
modifications and as a back-up. Clients will expect you to hand over your
original artwork.
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