[thelist] starting a website

Ben Henick persist1_pdx at yahoo.com
Mon Jul 10 17:54:43 CDT 2000


--- Shoshannah Forbes <xslf at xslf.com> wrote:
> From: "Theodore Serbinski" <need-4-speed-ski at erols.com>
> > What do you do when you are first creating a design with a website?
> > Do you just start with a raw html file and code away? Do you use
> dreamweaver
> > and just start moving things around until it looks pretty?
> Something else?
> 
> Here is what I do:
> * Talk to the client and as a million questions, to get an idea about
> what
> the hell I want to make.
> * Fire up Photoshop and play in it until I get something I like and
<anip>

Of all the responses to the question, Shoshannah's is the closest to my
own method.

1.  What's your mission?  [Get past the "duh" stage.]
2.  Who's your audience?  [Again.]
3.  If you have a choice, how do want the site to stand out? [In
    other words, if you're gonna nickel-dime me, you better give me 
    something now or forever hold your peace.]
4.  Add a cup of common sense to these responses.  Ferment for a week.
    This is the part of the stage where I use pencil-and-paper if I use
    them at all, though I can't draw fer #$^%.
5.  Spool up Photoshop.

Point is, I don't do a whole lot of visual work until everything is
figured out upstairs.  And then I run straight to Photoshop and
(generally) I work with colors BEFORE layout.

Generally:  I decide on a theme.  I choose colors and devices for that
theme, and THEN I decide what consititutes the best use of resources
(esp. bandwidth) and take the layout from there.

And for myself I think I'm gonna move from a 3-comp SOP to a 5-comp SOP
'cause when I think about it, it occurs to me that I don't generally
hit my stride until the 3rd comp most times, anyway.  The first two can
then go into the "died a-borning" folder to be pulled out and massaged
for another project several weeks or months down the line.



=====
Ben Henick              |  "In the long run, men hit only
Web Author At-Large     |  what they aim at.  Therefore,
www.io.com/persist1/    |  though they should fail
persist1 at io.com         |  immediately, they had better aim
persist1_pdx at yahoo.com  |  high."  --Henry David Thoreau

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get Yahoo! Mail – Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/




More information about the thelist mailing list