What's your approach to starting a web design project?

In my opinion, the first step is the most important one. Even before defining the Goals and Scope, I generally choose to understand my client, going one step beyond just designing a website. This gives me a clear perspective of what the person likes in general and what not. So here is my 5-step formula: 1. Understand the Client in a very generic way 2. Ask Clients' favorite websites, fonts, colors, and what they like about any particular website. 3. Understand the Clients' expectations, current problems, and the desired outcomes. 4. Do your research and define the right scope of work to meet your work ethic with the client's expectations 5. Plan the best timelines and budget and keep transparent communication.

The first step is to understand the business of the client. understanding the industry for the website design is very important as it will help to decide on the fonts and colors to be used. Then comes the problems faced by the business. This will help to design the website to solve those problems. All the other requirement such as the no of pages, the timeframe, pricing, etc. follows. After all the information is gathered, then the price and the timeframe are decided and agreed and an invoice is sent to the client, with 50% of the payment upfront and the remaining once the project is done.

By the time I start a project, I have already completed a discovery call so I know what the client wants. However, the first thing that I do is ensure everything is down on paper from objectives, deliverables, timelines and KPI's. Once down on paper, I am accountable for the timeline and the client understands what is being delivered.

The goals and scope of a web design project outline its purpose, target audience, desired outcomes, and metrics. It's essential to determine these elements before starting, as they guide the design process. Key considerations include the website's objective, the intended users, success criteria, and available time, budget, and resources. A well-defined scope ensures effective prioritization, clear communication, and aligned expectations with stakeholders.

The first step in starting a web design project is to define the goals and scope of the project. This involves understanding the purpose of the website, what it needs to achieve, and who the target audience is What is the purpose of the website? Is it an e-commerce site, a blog, a portfolio, or something else entirely? Understanding the primary function of the site is crucial. Who is the target audience? Who are you designing the website for? Understanding your audience's demographics, preferences, and needs will help inform your design choices. What are the project goals and objectives? What do you want to achieve with this website? It could be increasing sales, building brand awareness, providing information, or a combination of these.

Research and analysis are foundational in web design. It's essential to study competitors to identify market standards and potential differentiators. Keeping abreast of current design trends ensures the website feels contemporary and aligns with user expectations. Adherence to best practices guarantees usability and accessibility. Direct user feedback, obtained through interviews and surveys, pinpoints user needs and preferences. Tools like Google Analytics offer insights into user behavior, while personas and user journeys help tailor the design to specific user types. Lastly, a SWOT analysis can highlight the project's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the design landscape.

Before going technical, study your client’s brand first. When you know what their purpose, voice, and audience are, your next steps are more guided and focused for success.

Find inspiration. Find inspiration. Find inspiration. It's one of the most difficult but most important steps. Make a mood board!

Once I've figured out what I want to achieve with my website and the overall plan, the next move is to dig into some research and analysis. I need to gather info on competitors, check out trends, and understand what users really need. I use various tools like surveys, analytics, and user interviews to get the lowdown. The goal here is to get the full picture – understand the context, figure out the problems, and spot those opportunities in my web design project.

spot on, it's all about the research, if you don't know how high the bar is then how are you going to produce something that beats the competition?

After conducting thorough research and analysis, the next steps are crafting a sitemap and wireframe. The sitemap offers a visual depiction of a website's structure, illustrating the organization and interlinking of its pages and content. On the other hand, a wireframe is a basic sketch that outlines the layout and functionality of individual pages. It delineates the placement and interaction of elements like navigation bars, headers, footers, content sections, and calls to action. Together, the sitemap and wireframe serve as invaluable tools in the web design process, aiding in planning, testing, and refining the project.

Once I've wrapped up my research and analysis, the next step is crafting a sitemap and wireframe. A sitemap is like a map, visually outlining how the website's structure and hierarchy flow. It lays out how pages and content are organized and linked. Then there's the wireframe, a basic sketch of each page's layout and functionality. It's a blueprint, showing how elements like navigation, header, footer, content, and calls to action are arranged and interact. Putting together a sitemap and wireframe is crucial for planning, testing, and refining my web design project.

My sitemaps are not visual, there are bullet points that show the hierarchy. If I do a user flow diagram which shows how users interact then that is visual.

Crafting an effective web design post-research involves two vital steps: creating a sitemap and wireframe. A sitemap visually outlines the website's structure and hierarchy, while wireframes offer low-fidelity sketches of page layouts. Prioritize user flow, keep it simple, and consider responsive design. Online tools like Balsamiq, Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD simplify wireframe creation. Collaborative platforms like InVision and Miro aid in feedback collection. Encourage stakeholder input, conduct user testing, and refine your designs accordingly. These steps ensure a user-centric, organized, and responsive web design.

O sitemap visualiza a estrutura e hierarquia do site, enquanto o wireframe fornece um esboço de baixa fidelidade do layout e funcionalidades de cada página. Ambos são ferramentas essenciais para planejar, testar e aprimorar o projeto de web design, garantindo uma organização eficiente e uma experiência do usuário bem delineada.

Think of a style guide and design system as a cookbook and a set of kitchen tools for your website. Design tokens are the ingredients listed in your cookbook, specifying details like colors, font sizes, and spacing. For example, Salesforce’s design system is like a specialized set of recipes and tools ensuring consistency across their platform, whether you’re viewing it on a computer, iPhone, or Android. Tools like Style Dictionary let you adapt these ingredients for different platforms, ensuring a uniform look and feel. It’s like having a magic cookbook that updates all your recipes across every kitchen, making the cooking process smoother and ensuring a delightful meal, or in this case, a user experience.

Choosing a style guide and design system is crucial for maintaining consistency and efficiency in your design work. They save time by providing predefined guidelines and components, allowing you to focus on creativity rather than reinventing the wheel.

A style guide serves as a foundational document that outlines the visual identity of a website, encompassing its colors, fonts, icons, imagery, logos, and even the tone of voice. It essentially acts as a compass, guiding the visual and verbal expression of a brand online. On the other hand, a design system is a more comprehensive toolkit, offering a suite of reusable components and patterns that adhere to the style guide. This includes user interface elements like buttons, forms, cards, menus, and modals. Together, the style guide and design system form a synergistic duo, ensuring that every aspect of the website, from its aesthetics to its functionality, aligns with the brand's ethos and vision.

Once I've got my sitemap and wireframe in place, the following move is selecting a style guide and design system. A style guide is like the rulebook, laying out the visual identity and brand guidelines for my website. It covers everything from colors and fonts to icons, images, logos, and tone of voice. Then there's the design system, a toolkit of reusable components and patterns that stick to the style guide. It includes things like buttons, forms, cards, menus, modals, and other UI elements. Bringing in both the style guide and design system is key to maintaining a consistent and cohesive look for my web design project.

This step isn't straight forward when the client has no clue about branding or they want to keep a logo that is not in keeping with their brand. This is where you need to stand your ground, in order to design and build a great website a style guide and design system is imperative.

A meaningful web design project should have user testing. At this stage, you should consider providing some user stories to see if your prototypes are actually meeting the needs you set out to do.

Once I've sorted out the plan, style, and layout with my sitemap, wireframe, style guide, and design system, the last leg of my web design journey is getting hands-on with development and prototyping. This means transforming all those plans into a fully functional and interactive website. I use different tools and languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and platforms like WordPress and Bootstrap. For simulating user experience and feedback, I turn to prototyping tools like InVision, Sketch, or Framer. This hands-on phase is where I validate and fine-tune my web design project.

There is a missing step here (imo), once a Lo-Fi wireframe is approved, a High-Fi design should be done before any prototyping is started. To build a page you need a design, you can't wing it. More dev steps needed if advanced features are to be included, e.g. micro interactions, chat bots etc.

The development and prototyping phase is pivotal in web design. It transforms your sitemap, wireframe, style guide, and design system into an interactive website. Tools like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript form the core of web development, while platforms like WordPress and Bootstrap aid in streamlined design. For prototyping, tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, InVision, Sketch, and Framer are invaluable, allowing designers to simulate user experiences and gather feedback, ensuring the final design is both functional and user-friendly.

Following the design trends is very important when designing a website, It really changes year to year and following the latest design trends will make your customer and users satisfied and add the modern spirit to your design.

"Here's what else to consider" section, you have the opportunity to expand on any additional points, examples, stories, or insights that may not neatly fit into the previous sections but are still relevant to the overall discussion. It's a flexible space where you can provide supplementary information, anecdotes, or perspectives that contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the topic. This section allows you to cover any remaining aspects or address questions or ideas that may have arisen during the conversation but haven't been addressed in detail. Feel free to share anything else that you believe would be valuable or interesting for the discussion at hand.