Web Design Process in 2023 – Fundamental Guideline

If you’re a newbie in web designing and you are wondering how to handle an entire web design process. This practical guideline with the latest updates will help you be ready to conquer your debut project.

Web design is a fundamental part of the web development process. We all know web designing is like building a functional piece of art. Therefore, it is understandable that the web design process includes many things for web design developers to keep in mind.

However, where to begin with and the real question is what you require to know before heading further. Here we have this complete fundamental guide to help you out.

Essential Guide To The Process Of Web Designing

A comprehensive guideline on the web design process special for newbie. You are at the right place to learn the basic fundamentals of web designing.

1. You have to pick something basic for your initial design

At the beginning of the web design process, a newbie sometimes might get over-enthusiastic and put many expectations on his project.

However, it turns out that most of them face many challenges during the process of web design and finish up with disappointment.

Therefore, to avoid that situation, it’s a superb idea for you to pick something easy and a little fun.

It’s suggested that a blog is an ideal platform to getting started. You will learn good design skills and how exactly a Content Management System (CMS) runs, which will be essential to understanding and preparing for your upcoming website designs.

But most importantly, with a project like this, you don’t have to build everything from scratch. Instead, you will get a hub of templates that will turn it simple for you to put one together.

Indeed, templates are helpful tools for learning from doing. Moreover, you can see the way how CSS, HTML, and JavaScript are styled and integrated which shows you the answer to what really makes a design work.

You can choose some templates as a brick to make a few alterations and customizations.

In case a blog is not something that you wish to commence, you might love to create a project related to your innovative hunts or hobbies. Building a design to display a passion of yours will make your initial project fun.

2. Let other designers inspire you

There are plenty of websites with many works that will wow and ignite your creativity. Before starting your project, you can create your own “inspiration board” to save all the works that suit your taste and become a fleet reference resource.

Pinterest, Behance, and Freepik are some inspiring websites that are worth your click. You can find several pins graphics, posters, covers, blogs, and other sorts of design work that you can refer to.

Apart from all the discoveries that you create on your own, the following are some well-formed collections that you should look out.

• Awwwards comes up with some forever fresh stuff that you are looking for with a great variety of themed collections.
• Behance is indeed a splendid collection of website design work, where the entire focus is on innovation and quality.
• Dribbble is individual and designer-centric and offers a forum to get good feedback and communicate with others regarding their work.

3. Search for more sources outside the web

You can get inspiration from almost everywhere you want. Web design is notified by a visual language that can be seen everywhere, like a graphic novel’s cover.

So, start searching for a great design and begin analyzing why something works well or doesn’t, whatever the way.

Pay more attention to typography

We often read without paying attention to typefaces. Next time instead of screening through the content, spend a few more seconds thinking of the font. Are they readable? How do they style and combined? We see letters everywhere we go. So, ensure you have all your observations well noted since those notes will be valuable resources for you in the long run.

When coming to typography, Typewolf is a great resource to keep tabs on famous fonts.

It provides a plethora of lists to explore, lookbooks with the best font combinations, and a featured website of the day. It is extremely helpful to view exact typography examples being employed, and a few websites like Typewolf is a great platform to view their practical applications.

Getting a little more familiar with a variety of fonts will assist you to find out the correct type during the web design process.

4. Study different sorts of design

To be a web designer, you should know different design principles. Thus, having a good knowledge of illustration, product design, and branding can later contribute to your innovative senses.

For collecting inspirations that are beyond web designing, Abduzeedo is totally a platform that you wish to have a look. You will come across various great examples of design, regardless of whether they’re luggage, poster art, or furniture. So, be more open to various sorts of design and actively get more inspiration.

The more knowledge you have, the simpler your web design process will become.

5. Get ready with your content before you begin

Starting with putting a content list tells about having content ready to work with as you begin designing your initial website. It doesn’t have to be great and you can anytime edit and optimize it for Google SEO further. However, having at least a rough content of what will be live for the audience will assist in ensuring the design is made out to support it.

Designing your website with some real content provides you with a good display of how the website will appear and work. It also offers you the opportunity to make hefty changes earlier in the process of designing.

If you are doing it for blogs, then you will require to have a post ready to first test in the CMS. You should have a bunch of posts already written before you go live and it will save struggling to write something after the fact.

6. Keep your design less for more

Whether it’s the matter of CTAs, writing, or navigation, no one would wish to struggle with your web design. Your approach to design should be fitted in simplicity and order.

There should be some logic that would guide someone via the website with comfort. Moreover, since we are discussing those people who will deal with what you have made, this is a great place to come up with UX.

7. Understand user experience (UX)

A website is not a single block of text, there are many other things to consider as well such as typography, color scheme, layout, content, and imagery. Those elements closely link and directly affect the audience’s emotions.

UX mainly puts focus on knowing your audience better. What are they searching for on the web – and how will your design make their work simple? UX is all about reaching your audience and viewing your design through your eyes.

User experience (UX) is important in the web design process

When  you are in the process of designing your website, keep these guiding UX rules in mind:

• Turn things easy and intuitive.
• Communicate all the concepts in a logical succession.
• Meet all needs of your audience and withstand the temptation to display your skills at the cost of usability.

Carefully researching your audience will assist you to build a design that caters to their wants and requirements.

8. Understand the fundamental of user interface (UI)

If you are new to this field of web design, you might be baffled by the difference between UX and UI that most of us are. Understand that there are two concepts-

Where UX is touched with the whole feel of a design, UI is all about the features. Suppose if you were in an elevator, UI would be the arrangement and size of its floor buttons. While UX would incorporate the textures, colors, and some other interior design options of the elevator space.

However, UI is about providing someone the best tools they require to experience your website free from every complexity.

When building your initial website, always keep these UI rules in mind:

• Interactive components should have obvious functionality.
• Accord must guide usability and actions should completely follow logical patterns.
• Create your own choice of design with a clear purpose.

Read:Which are the best App Design Tools for Developers in 2022

Adopt the design principles for guidance to your web design process

Design principles for guidance to your web design process

Practical web designing is well guided by some rules and it’s vital to know primary web design skills before you head further. However, certain prime practices will ease the entire process and provide a more polished end product.

Layout

Knowing the layout is essential if you desire to build your own website. It is recommended to keep things minimal and work with just a few elements to put focus on better placement.

Always think of grids before heading for designing since it will facilitate you in allocating the design elements. With the help of gird, design elements including images and div blocks will be arranged logically.

Furthermore, your layout’s structure should completely follow an optical hierarchy. A visual hierarchy requires sticking to the traditional patterns employ when reading.

The two popular pattern hierarchies that most people mostly follow are the Z-pattern and the F-pattern. Being entirely familiar with how all these patterns work will certainly assist you in planning your own content.

The F-pattern is more popular for designs with solid content blocks. The eyes of your audience will completely check down the left side of a layout until all the things grab their attention and later read from left to right.

Just think yourself searching through the menu of a restaurant – you might skip a few bold dishes names situated on the left until you reach to something that catches you, which will eventually develop an urge in you to read the other details demonstrating that particular dish.

F pattern hierarchy in web design

CNN is an example of web design using the F pattern hierarchy

There are many people out there who will read through something just like reading a blog in F-pattern. Look at the posts of Nelson Abalos, he has taken advantage of this design technique with bulleted sentences and left-aligned text thereby turning his posts simply to follow and navigate.

The Z-pattern is well connected with a low text-hefty design. Several landing pages adhere to this pattern. Basically, all the main elements on this Conservation guide website stick to the Z-pattern. As a beginner, you will consider this an easy layout trick to assist usability.

Z pattern hierarchy in web design

Facebook is an example of web design using the F pattern hierarchy

Color

You have every color available for you that you wish for. We know that with hefty power arrives hefty responsibility. Your choice of color will decide the good and bad for you. Here comes some great approaches to opting for a good color scheme for your initial website.

Monochrome

Go for a single color as a base, then check for the amount of saturation you want along with darks and lights, and play along with different hues for a standard color scheme. No matter what your niche is, a monochrome website is truly a bold choice. And don’t forget whatever color you opt for the text, just ensure that you consider readability issues too.

So, here we have taken an example from Unique, every section is displayed by a monochromatic color scheme. Besides, there is no need for you to bring this into your early designs, however, it is a great view of their usage of a variety of monochromatic color variations. Moreover, it is a good design trick that turns into a harmonious color scheme.

Complementary

Choose some opposite colors from the color wheel and integrate them. Seems easy, correct?

Go for complementary colors with due care and here in this design below from the Igninis site, the designer has used orange and blue in various combinations with some grey and whitespace for a better layout that would never tire your eyes. Moreover, this whole contrast seems interesting and crisp.

Typography

Webflow arrives with a broad selection of fonts and other options to add more. Typography is basically a two-dimensional architecture, completely based on imagination and experience along with the guidance of readability and rules. So what rules as a beginner do you require to know?

Typography informs tone

Think of a birthday invitation or any announcement where an elegant typeface would work well but it would not suit better on a few other occasions. So, when designing your website, keep the tone in mind whether it’s giving a light vibe such as a food blog, or being playful in fonts that make a little sense. However, if you are building a website for a professional firm, then adhere to more professional typefaces.

Serifs versus non-serifs

There’s a basic mistake made by every new designer is to mix up serif and non-serif fonts. The point is the ends of the serif letter have one more extra line or a stroke extended horizontally and vertically.

Following are the differences between PT Serif and PT Sans (without the serif).

PT Serif:

PT Sans:

Serifs are an artifact from a long-ago of printing presses. At that time, most of the words we read were printed with ink on paper. There were words anchored in Serif onto the page and turn them simpler to read. When the web had just come, serifs were somewhat ignored by web designers as lower screen resolutions weakened them. Currently, those screens are well-optimized for typography with serifs, indeed they have made a comeback.

Those tiny lines make a hefty difference and you will see the above PT Serif typeface looks a lot formal and the sans-serif a little loose and light. Serif fonts seem very complex but they are well used in moderation. To put them, choose the headers and hefty blocks of content that profit from an easier font without serifs.

Embellishment versus practicality

The rings of a grown font will certainly add personality and charm to a design, however, don’t overuse over-frilly fonts. A website is all about what your audience perceives of it via your content. Moreover, readability is one of a font’s most significant features.

Typography technicalities

Typography has many things to discuss as you grow further as a designer, you will need to master typography setup including line height, weight, and kerning. However, don’t get too caught up in twitching all the difficulties for your initial website. You can take time and put your focus on ensuring everything is readable first and changing the details later on.

Commence designing

All the tutorials you have gone through and the research you did has positively contributed to your learning. However, in the end, only practice makes perfect. Start your web design process today, it doesn’t matter if you can make a wow work. Practicing is a valuable chance for you to apply what you have acquired.

So, don’t worry if it’s not great, just be proud of passing that origin from aspiring Designer to being one and then you are on your route.

Get feedback

You completed your initial design, well great! You have put in your best efforts and are now ready to display it to the audience. However, before you go live, get some outside viewpoints on what you have created. Getting helpful criticism can be sometimes uncomfortable and building something whether it’s an essay, a website, a painting, is just an act of vulnerability.

The things you showcase to the world define who you are and what all can you bring to the world. It seems like a personal attack if someone corrects you to be better or tells you you are wrong. Feedback is a must in designing and a vital part of the process.

So, learn how to first set your ego aside from all and separate the feedback from your self-worth. When you start gaining experience, you will be better able to recognize and apply practical and useful feedback. You will get to know that more experienced designers know what it’s like to be fresher and they are all thrilled to view less-experienced designers grow.

Closing thoughts

Gone are the days when you have to learn the code line by line to build a whole new website from scratch. Now, you have us at your back to get your ideal website to life. InApps is proud to have a team of experts who is in charge of all of the steps needed in the web design process: planning content, coding, designing UI & UX, testing, and publishing.

What you need is to keep in mind all of the aforementioned core steps in the web design process and be able to learn the difference between good and bad design. If you have any other questions on developing a website, don’t hesitate to contact us here.

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