Do any of you guys have a particular process you go through when designing a site? I always find it really hard to get started on a site, and often have to have 4 or 5 gos before I get it right. Is there a "perfect formula" out there for getting your designs right every time?

I either get the rough idea how the site should look immediatly or I won't even start doing it. Usually it's not a problem to come up with the design.

Sometimes I just start my doing some graphics. I'll mess around with Photoshop, use different colours, fonts, brushes filters and so on. If something turns out to look neat and fitting the site topic I'll base my entire design to it.

Sometimes all I get is crap. What results closing photoshop and trying again tomorrow.

Messing around with Photoshop is also a good way to learn new tricks.

LOL Happens to me all the time. I always have a go at doing some kind of logo/header image, and if that turns out all right I might carry on. I never do a whole layout in PS or whatever though - I can never seem to get it to the right scale for some reason. I'm working on something at the mo, which I think looks alright - I'll put it up when I finish it.

Usually i take a site i've previously build, then edit the CSS file of it (what a little css file can't do ). But IF i happen to create one from scratch I just start thinking of an nice color combo and then play around with PS or Gimp to get a basic idea of where everything should be placed.

Hi budy,

Before Starting Website designing you need to collect these basic information
1) What the Site is about (Educational,Personal,Gaming,Add Purpose, or a portal )
2) What are the Contents are going to be Dipsplayes in site
3) At what rate Site content are going to be changed

Then start Your Site Designing

Cheers
Arunkumar.H.G

ok here is my process in starting a website

1: decide what the website is going to be about
2: Think what kind of layout you are going to make
3: if u are a gfx designer start to make graphics for the website
4: start coding the website so everything is right

and the last step is to start making pages for the content to go on

the main thing to do is figure out what layout you need. As in, how many menus there will ever be(including sub menu's), how many options there will be in those menus, and so on. At that point, you have narrowed down the number of possible layouts there are(realistically) to choose from. Pick the layout that makes the most sense for your content/audience and go with it. This will give you a decent site. Write it with as much CSS as possible, so that if you decide there is a more optimal way of doing things, you only have to mess with the CSS file once and be done with it.

What I do when I create a website is to first decide my topic for my webpage, then I create a quicky sketch of what my website is going to look like, and create the graphics that I think that I need. Just make sure there are no 'loud graphics'. That is a number 1 mistake that web page designers seem to make. If the graphics conflict with the text (means that you can't read it), or the graphic seems unnessecery, then the viewer may decide to visit a different website. Neatness and smaller pictures count. If the image has to be bigger than the web browser window, then create a thumbnail for the image. A thumbnail is a smaller version of the image that links to the larger image. Also, if your images are too large for a photo gallary, then the wait for the viewer will cause him/her to go somewhere else. That is why it is a good idea to use thumbnails in a Photo/Image Gallary.

my process is simple... and yet powerful...

1.)think of the goal
2.)think of the target audience and visitors
3.)Collect every tastebuds
4.)find everything for each tastebuds
5.)make a scenario for the long term effect of the site...
6.)collect graphics and images or create myself...
7.)design the layout
8.)export it and code simple htmls
9.)Separate Scripiting from the htmls
10).Bring it all together
11.)Test it and show it to your friends and community
12.)if ok launch it... else dump it... start again...

thats simple isn't it...

Designing a website, can be fun and easy, just make sure you follow these steps.
1. Learn CSS- the more you know about CSS, the easier it will be for you, and less frustrating for you, and you will enjoy designing your site.
2. Always test the site after you have finished, make sure you tested with all the browsers you can and if you need to make adjustments, I reccomend Microsoft Frontpage for easy editing.
3. Get other people's opinion of your site.