Web design made easy

I recently attended a seminar called “Web site Design Made Easy” taught by Smat Webdesign and was inspired to share some of the things I learned, as well as some tips of my own.

As an up-and-coming Web designer, you have to know the good, the bad and the ugly of the field.

Let’s start with the bad: Murphy’s Law is the reality of web design. The law states that if something can go wrong, then it will. From experience, when you first start in Web design, you’ll find that about 97 percent of the time, nothing will work the first time around. Now here’s the good news: Web design is all about practice, patience and most importantly, learning from mistakes.

Before you run and scream at the sight of HTML code, relax, grab some coffee and start by reading the tips below.

1. Plan out your Web site on paper. What will be its purpose? Who will your audience be? Write down the pages you will include (i.e. About, History, Products, Contact, etc.).
2. Once you have an idea of what the content will be, start to plan the layout and look of your site. I highly recommend to research, research, research! Go online to different Web sites so you can see what you like and what you don’t. Inspiration is the key ingredient to web design.
3. Draw a rough sketch of each page and try your best to be as detailed as possible. It isn’t necessarily how your Web site has to look in the end, but it will serve as a guide. This step is crucial because it will save you time later.
4. Now you’re ready to get on the computer and work your heart out. There are countless resources that will guide you through HTML and CSS – I’ve listed some of my favorites below. Start with HTML, which will be the basic structure of your Web site. Learn what the basic tags are, what they do and how they will look on a browser. Then move on to CSS, which will control the design of your Web site.  After you have a basic knowledge of what to do, it’s all about trial and error.

Here are some useful resources to get you started:

»             http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
»             http://html-tags.info/
»             http://www.websitebeginner.com/
»             http://htmldog.com/

The last piece of advice I can give you is don’t be afraid to start! Begin with the most basic designs and you’ll see that, as long as you keep using your resources, you will keep learning and most importantly, improving.

You can’t expect to build a beautiful Web site overnight. It’s going to take time, research and dedication.

Good luck!