Professional Step-by-step Guide To Web Designing.

In this article, we are going to learn professional steps in web designing which is a series of 4 articles. Professional steps of web designing articles explains the practical techniques involved in understanding the client requirements, designing a layout in Adobe Photoshop*, Optimizing, slicing and HTML Conversion of the layout in Adobe ImageReady* and developing HTML Pages, making the website compatible in 800 X 600 pixels, 1024 X 768 pixels resolution compatible through Macromedia Dreamweaver*.

The current article explains the expectations of a client in the web design industry, the steps to undertsand and implement the client requirement.

Client's Requirement

" Website should look and feel different "

" The website must project a business image "

" Corporate colors should be used prominently "

" Launch is in a week. Seven days flat "

" Above all, it should download fast "

These are the requirements a client usually expects before placing an order.

Well friends . . . speed kills . . . but in today's competitive web-design scenario, speed and creative concepts are the only vehicles that can help one race ahead of others. Having an innovative layout ready - hot and quick - is what will make a winner in this demanding industry.

So, first study your client. A smart way of doing this would be to summarize his expectations into a 'mission statement' or goal to challenge your creative stamina.

Why A Step-wise Approach?

Come to think of it, it's really simple designing a website. Just open Macromedia Dreamweaver*, MS FrontPage* or MS Word* select your stuff and save as HTML thus the Web Page is ready!

By using web authoring tools like Macromedia Dreamweaver* or saving HTML from MS Word*, anybody can create a 'quickie' web-site, but what about the Design Part ?...the Aesthetics ?

It is here that the question for a step-wise approach to professional web designing arises. There must be some path for a web-designer to follow, which gives his client the best-designed website in the shortest possible time.

Step-wise approach facilitates:

	Designing a website, that keeps in mind all the basic elements like the client's corporate colors, logos & symbols, product gallery, etc.
	Optimization of graphic images so as to reduce the size of a page and thus enable it to download fast.
	Converting a graphically designed page to web format (HTML), so it can be uploaded on the Internet.

What Are these Steps?

	Design the Home Page and Inside Pages, using Photo Editing software like Corel Draw*, Adobe Photoshop*, Macromedia Firework*, Corel Photopaint* etc.
	Optimize & Slice the pages using software like Adobe Image Ready* or Macromedia Fireworks*.
	Save as HTML through the Photo Editing software and provide links using web-authoring tools like Microsoft Frontpage*, Macromedia Dreamweaver*.

Internet became popular very fast, especially after invention of browsers, which made it possible to view pictures along with text information. That made many users get connected to Internet.

The point here is graphics plays very important role in web design. Pictures or images if presented in the right way can communicate and drive the message better than words. If a web page is created using HTML without graphics then the power of the Internet is under- utilized.

An Image cannot be created using HTML and thus comes the need for an appropriate Photo Editing Software.

The first step is to design a home page using a good Photo Editing software.

A Photo Editing software gives the flexibility of placing an image, and creating a collage of different images, changing color combinations, adding effects to make the site look attractive.