Designers play a critical role in the success of any website they are designing. There are a lot more components to a website then what the layperson is aware of. It is important that the client of the designer understand these components. This way, they have a way of knowing what the designer has by way of responsibilities. One of these responsibilities, and a major one is page design. Designing webpage layout has many different levels to it that have to be addressed by the designer.
What are the Expectations?
The designer has to know what the expectations are for the client, and what the client’s expectations are of each page of the website itself. This then allows the designer to construct a plan for the actual layout.
Designing a Plan
Before the designer can even start with the framework of the website, they must start by designing a plan. This can be done through a series of sketches utilizing flowcharts, as one page of a design should flow nicely into another page. It will depend on how many pages are on the site itself.
The Framework
The framework of a site is made up of many different components. It is comprises the structure of the way that things are going to be laid out. It is done along with an organization of all the files and folders that are used for the different codes that are necessary for building the pages.
Designing of the Grid
The grid is the layout of the page that determines what items are going to be used on the page, and where they will each go. There will be different sections to each page, and a grid will determine what these sections are, and how much content each of them will be able to hold.
Choosing the Colours
The designer has to focus on the colours using different metrics. The brand of the website may already have the colours chosen. For example, the client may have other media that has been designed, such as soft and hard media. Perhaps brochures and business cards, which will dictate the colour scheme that the client has chosen. If not, it will be up to the designer to make the recommendations. The choice of colours is going to depend on many factors that are all specific to the brand of the website that is being built.
The Content
In many cases, the designer will hire other experts or have experts on staff to create the actual content that is going to go on the page. The designer may want to make the decision about the font. Aside from this, the rest is up to the other experts. In some cases, the clients wish to do their own content.
