Designing Websites

wixfjord

Just wondering did anyone entrepreneurs out there design their own websites instead if employing someone to do it. How did you get on? Id love to learn a bit about web design, is there any advice you would give or advice on resources to help me? Complete novice here so basic stuff if possible. Thanks

asto

Hi, I designed my company website and am willing to offer you some advice, feel don't email me at [email]brian@<snip>[/email]

Joseph

I'm starting out in web design and would do you a good deal for a high quality if you're interested in having someone do it. I know you're looking to do it yourself but I also provide a training session to learn how to update and modify the site

DJB

Here's a couple of good books you could read before starting:

- http://www.sitepoint.com/books/design1/
- http://www.sitepoint.com/books/html1/
- http://www.sitepoint.com/books/dreamweaver1/

However, if it's for your own business, I'd really recommend you get a professional in to do the job. It will reflect on your website and on your business image, much like the difference between a logo created by someone in word and one done by professional graphic designer. But for learning, give those books a try and maybe check www.w3schools.com.

HTH, Dave

Diceicle

Google open sourse web design and you should be able to get a basic enough website together using Zoomla or a similar program. As long as you're not getting into the e-commerce end of things and you're just looking to publish a 'business card' / brochure site then you should be fine.

davros

I have designed and built quite a few websites over the years. This has generally been from necessity since none of the sites was commercial and I wasn't willing to pay money for design.

I am no graphic artist but I find that each time I do a site I get a little better. And now, finally, that I'm creating a website for my first business venture, I reckon my design skills are sufficient to make an acceptable job of it. If I didn't have all those other projects under my belt I would not have the same confidence.

In other words, I'm suggesting lots of practice on amateur sites first where you can experiment and get things wrong. Start a blog and try to design a look for it. You will begin to get a feel for the various design choices.

There are so many practical decisions to be made too, like fonts, fixed width v liquid layout, JavaScript framework, menu styles, etc. and potential gotchas in browser support, etc. that it would be wise to read some of the many quality websites that cover these topics.

My best tip would be to download Paint.NET and start by designing your website in that (I'm assuming you are not already a Photoshop wizard). It's sophisticated enough to do anything you want (eg layers and graphical effects) without requiring training. You can even take a screencap of a site you like and then start painting over it to convert it gradually to something suitable for your own use.

When you are happy with the look, start converting it to HTML & CSS.