Is their really a “right way” to build a web site?
It’s been a little quiet here. Hopefully that’ll change soon.
In the meantime I wanted to draw attention to these posts about web design. It all started with a couple of posts from 37 Signals about not using Photoshop and designers doing their own HTML & CSS.
I saw them thanks to Douglas Bowman’s post about choosing the right tool, which lead me to Jeff Croft’s post about why he doesn’t skip Photoshop.
I feel this slew of commentary illustrates that there are many, many ways to deliver a great website (as all of these guys can do) using the same tools and procedures, but in different ways. “Horses for courses” as we used to say back in Blighty.
These posts got me thinking about some for RefreshCleveland. What I might do is try and capture the tools and procedures I use and let you know what worked for me and what didn’t. That is not to say that any combination is right or wrong, as I feel in this day and age, web designers have to be nimble and ready to change depending on client and project.
Happy to hear your thoughts on this.
Technorati tags: tools, web design, process
Tags: tools, webdesign, process
June 16th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Hi David: We use Bitrix a fully evolved CMS (http://www.bitrixsoft.com) resource, and have been able to build some amazing sited. They are not an open source provider but you get what you pay for.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Very interesting group of posts on the subject recently. I read with interest 37signals’ post on using css/xhtml for prototyping, and immediately felt the same as Croft — it shows.
As designers, we need to use the tools that don’t constrain us, yet allow for a quick build when needed.
What works for me is OmniGraffle. I find that by starting in OG, I can quickly build out the rough design with a reasonable amount of design details while retaining agility. Then, into Photoshop for that final bit of polishing.
But even using these tools, it’s easy to fall into that “saved style” or template mode where everything looks like the last one. It’s a balance.
September 19th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
i don’t think there’s a right way to build or design websites… For a person with better background in codes dreamweaver might be the starting point… I know many ppl who design in illustrator … I use photoshop.. I even know somebody who uses Indesign for websites… creates a PDF… slice n’ dice…
I think it all depends upon what kind of end product you are delivering or the client is expecting..
About designers doing their own HTML/CSS… I like to do my own, because that way, I know what I’m doing. There are multiple ways of achieving the same result when it comes to the web, and I might not necessarily understand a hardcore developers approach… eventhough the end result is the same… If I am going to be maintaining the site.. and I have the skill set to develop it.. why not???