Iztok Smolic

Working in a small team often forces the designer to do more than only design buttons in Photoshop. In many cases Web designers are in charge of the whole process before developing.

We all know planing should be a part of the process, but sometimes we have to crash into a brick wall to realize how important it really is.

How it should be done

The best work flow when designing and developing Web site would be something like this:

• determine goals, purpose and strategy of a Web site
• design the information architecture – what is the content and how will user get to it
• design the Web site wireframes – designing front an other typical pages only with blocks, lines and text
• developing a prototype of a Web site only with static HTML (not really necessary)
• designing the layout based on what we have learn from wireframes and prototype
• developing the functionality on the Web sites – back-end programming
• putting the code and design together – front-end developing
• finishing, inserting content and testing

All may not agree with these steps, but you may say it would work.

Problem one: The world is not perfect

You don't wonna have 10+ versions of a layout for a straight forward project

Last couple of years I was also working with people and companies that did not have their work flow determine. Designing web site was a one man band for them. As a designer in the project I had to design the layout that will be shown to the client not knowing what the content really was. The problem was that nobody supplied enough information about architecture and content positing. Most of the project so started with opening blank canvas in Photoshop, because clients “wanted to see how we will designed it and then give comments about what the content would be”.

This can of course lead to the point when clients want more and more of your suggestions. It may also happen (as it did for me) that you, as a designer, will never be satisfied with you work. This happens because you must arrange the blocks of content every time you start a new design. If the wireframes were approved that wouldn’t be a problem.

Problem two: The client is you

Other situation where most of the designers will not be using the work flow from first chapter is when designing for them self. As a designers you will be too confident in your skills and experiences that you will be skipping all the planning and go straight to layouts or programming.

Layouts for the same project before and after planing and wireframing.

When designing your own website, or a product you are very familiar with, you must act as you have multiple identities: client, project leader, UX designer, GUI designer, front-end developer, … and follow the work flow you are using when working in a team.

Good designer can get away with “no planing”

This approach is not always a fail. When working on a smaller web sites, with only few pages and news you don’t really have a lot of things to think. After a meeting with the clients you already have  picture of the wireframe  and the navigation in your head or you sketched it on a piece of paper. This way you can save time, but this only works if working alone on a small projects.

And remember:

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance