That's where the "designer" part comes in, in web design...
I think the problem with web sites and creating an effective and interesting design is first figuring out what the point of the website is. What's the company about? What type of clientele is the site attracting? What type of emotion or feeling do you want to bring out in your visitors?
I like to start with figuring out colors. It's easy to create a feeling or mood with colors. So I'll go into photoshop and plop out some blobs of colors, and i'll go mixing and matching until I think I have a nice pallette of colors.
Then I'll try and get the dominant color. I'll just paint large blobs and smaller streaks - just to get an idea how it would be blocked out, text certain colors, header another color, background color, etc.
Once the colors are figured out, things are a lot easier. Depending on how I'll be designing the site - html tables, css, flash, image-heavy - which is based on who the site is aiming at (eg, I wouldn't use an image-heavy site for a marriage counselor's website; I might use flash for an artist's portfolio site), I'll start blocking in layouts, either on paper or in photoshop. Certain methods lend more freedom to the design idea - flash is basically limitless in possibilities.
If I need to take some photos - photos can be great for building a site around - I'll go take em, or I'll buy stock, or I'll see if the client has any.
Once I have a few basic layout ideas and color schemes, I'll put together a few nicer design ideas - until now, I've been working very loose, only trying to stimulate my imagination or get an idea where I was going. Now, I'll be trying to create something I can show a client to find out where I'm going with the design. I'll come up with 3 very different, more extreme versions of my ideas.
From there it get's easier, and you just have to finalize your design.
A few things:
- Don't be afraid to break out of "box" designing - you can use curves and css to position everything!!
- use images!! If your user group has broadband (most people do) you may want to get some nice designs out of actual graphics rather than coloring up divs or tables.
- photos!! Designers often don't think of photos. Here's an example:
http://www.sparkplug.com/ and one more:
http://www.cleverdesign.com/clever/html/indexh.htm Now, how simple is that design?! But the photo makes it very effective!
- COLOR - color is a fundamental ingredient for evoking a feeling or emotion! - - Your website represents *someone*, a company, an organization - figure out what the golas of the organization are, and designing is easier!
