For a good web designer, it always starts
with the planning. After all, not much can be done before your requirements are
analysed, your ideas are heard, a project charter is put
in place and the resources are determined (and more importantly, arranged for).
Once the planning is taken care of, it’s more about bringing the ideas to life.
It is now that your website begins to take shape. A layout is designed first,
which is then turned into a mock-up or a prototype. And once you approve of the
prototype, it’s coding time. However, changes, if any, are made before the code
is written – that’s when it is the easiest to tweak the design as per your liking.
That being said, coding also calls for the
involvement of a developer, who needs to perform some key tasks:
- Ensuring that only the most suitable framework is chosen for your website
- Working with you to zero in on the pages to be created
- Introducing special features, if possible, and testing the site for interactivity
- Taking care of the content part; paying attention to typography and other important details
Once the developer does what he/she is
supposed to do, I take over and prepare for the launch of your site. It is my
responsibility to fine-tune the design and then transfer it to a live server.
However, before transferring the design, I need to make sure that the site has
been checked for broken links
and other errors. For this, I use various tools, including code validators. And
yes, I also check the site for cross-browser compatibility.
The Big Day
Finally, the website is launched. But that
doesn’t mean that my role is over. In
fact, being the website designer, I now have a more important role to play.
After the site has been launched, you must be provided with proper
documentation and the source files so that you can easily make changes later
on, if the need be. I hand over these files to you and also ensure that the
requirements specified in the charter have been fulfilled.
