Although I started my career as a web designer, most often I am given a web programmer role. Having worked both roles, I can honestly say that some designers are clueless on how to design a website.
This isn’t completely thief fault however. The rules to creating a great looking design and implementing that design are two different sets of things. Also the goals are not the same. Most cases the designer is primarily concerned with designing to please the client, while the programmer is focused on developing a fully functioning website.
Both programmer and designer are after the same goal: to create atheistically pleasing and seamlessly functioning website that surpasses the clients expectations. With that in mind, here are some tips designers to help assist with that goal.
Do:
Provide all font files. This should be a given for any project regardless if it is a website or not.
Consider all screens large and small. Many times I have had designers create an elaborate background only to have it cut off at the edges to their design file. What if the viewer has a larger screen then your design file? Conversely, what if the designer creates for a larger screen then the sites audience?
Label and organize your design files. When we “cut up” the site, generally we cut it into a header, footer, and content sections. Try to at least put your layers into that.
Note what the links should look like when the mouse hovers over it. The site is not static and shouldn’t feel like it. Also give examples of other fancy effects such as dropdowns, lightboxes, etc.
Provide the stock images or a link to where to purchase them. Its not necessarily the designer’s job to provide stock photos, but when the photos are to be “replaced later” it is good to have a link to buy them if plans change.
Do Not:
Randomly position photos outside of a grid format. There are many exceptions to this, but ideally any designer should be following an invible grid for the placement of text and images. Besides the fact that it makes your designs neat and orderly, the world of programmers is a world of rules and its faster to work inside those rules. The more exceptions there are to the rules, the more difficult programming becomes.
Neglect or leave out design elements. Like with the gripe about not having hover colors, some designers forget to show examples of form elements and heven things like header titles or footer text. Having a programer wing it on these elements can cause for some ugly blemishes on what is a good design.
Use non web-safe fonts for copy text. With html5 and javascript fonts like cufon, designers may be thinking that the websafe font debate us no longer an issue. However, not all people run html5 compatible browsers just yet and rending an entire page with javascript is a hog on computer resources. The happy medium is to dislay titles and headers in any font available, but still keep the main chunk of text in a browser safe font.
Think that the programmer will figure how to make it work. As a designer you are partly the architect of the site. Architects keep in mind the constraints of materials used in the construction of the their designs. Likewise, webdesigners should take note of what contraints are caused by programming–as well as the time and money restraints of the project itself.
So, in short…
As a designer, you are a member of a team, and often the first to pass the baton in relay that is website development. If you heed these dos and don’ts, you are guaranteed to be off to a good start!
