Website Design - Essential Planning Tips

Designing websites can often be a very organic process....Especially if you're designing for yourself, for fun and are very familiar with the process. But, if efficiency is something you're interested in when it comes to designing websites, it is important to plan and implement your web design projects in a somewhat similar fashion. If implemented correctly, it stream lines your web design process and also has other benefits incuding (but not limited to):

Less time making structural changes and edits
Ensures proper XHTML standard compliant formatting
Organizes styles
Saves you time, Everytime!
Allows other (employees, contract workers) to make changes and edit your project

What do I mean by implementing each project in a similar fashion?

Creating 1-2..3...4 different website project template files within a folder that include all the necessary components, applications, styles, etc. of what is needed for those projects. The reason why many website designers haven't done this already, is probably due to the time involved with creating template projects and the fact that there is no direct income associated with the process of doing this. But, it will ultimately save you tons of time in the long run, allow you to make educated estimates on prices of different client projects and expedite your turn around time. All of which will earn you more income in the long run.

I'm writing this post to introduce my readers to a new series I am going to write that involves creating project folders, with template files and how to utilize this to BE A MORE EFFICIENT web designer. Why am I doing this exactly? Because I recently had to buckle down and do just this. Let me tell you, what a sweet sigh of relief to begin a web design project with a more clear idea of what I'm doing by using my predefined templates and simply adjusting them.

The series will cover the following topics:

Components of web design project template folders

Commenting and making the code easier to adjust

Creating applications ready to go!

Style sheets and the basics of creating a simple CSS file that can work with ALL your projects

Folders and file systems within projects

And more!

Stay tuned for the series on efficient web design process and template creation for your web designs.