In preparing for my graphic design final tonight, I was trying to memorize the “5 stages of the design process”. As a web developer, I naturally wanted to apply these principles specifically to website design:

1. Research. When designing a site, several major questions need to be addressed. What functionality must be provided in the site? Does the organization or individual have a color scheme already, and if not, what would they like their color scheme to say? Is the site to be edgy, modern, grungy, clean, classical, professional, etc?
2. Creative Thinking. If you get to chose colors, play around with different combinations. Does custom artwork need to be generated? Browse other sites with similar goals, pick up good ideas and avoid bad ones. Surf stock photography and vector image sites for ideas to toss in. Go for a jog and think.
3. Roughs. Start sketching ideas feverishly. As quick as they come to you, draw them out. Do not stop for reflection. Try to come up with a wide variety of sites. Several aspects of each will stick with you.
4. Comps. Refine the best of your roughs into, say, three quality sketches or Photoshop layouts. These should be quality enough to present to the client (or your grandmother, whoever the site is for).
5. Final. Produce the finished product based off of the comp that your client liked best.

If you are designing a site for yourself, follow this procedure as well. If you are designing a site for your grandmother, follow it still. Get in the habit of professional design procedures, and your work will show the effort.

I have been experiencing a strange phenomenon lately.  I think that I can consider myself a card-carrying geek now: I dream in code.  It started last week.  I was creating web templates for myself as a student, helping the students I teach learn how to code, and reading about how to make cleaner code.  Then it happened.  Instead of daydreaming about tropical islands to make myself fall asleep, I kept running through code in my head.  I couldn’t stop it.  I would think of a palm tree, and then my brain would flash

<palmTree = “beautiful” />

or

do
{Swim.inOcean()}
while
{niceOutside == true} //Bad Code

I suppose  it has something to do with the concatenation of HTML, CSS, and JAVA in my life right now.  To make things even more interesting, I read 75 pages of an introduction to JavaScript last night while my wife slept (she went to bed at 9:00, what was I supposed to do?).

Is there a support group for this sort of thing?  Perhaps I should lay off the code for a while and practice some Photoshop tutorials.

I’ve been working through the Total Training video series on Adobe’s Creative Suite 3: Web Premium package. I’m almost done with the second Photoshop DVD, and I’ve learned a lot. I also feel that I have uncovered a beast that no amount of training will allow me to fully appreciate. Photoshop is intense! There is so much that you can do, and so much that needs to be understood. I have a headache thinking about it, and am a little worried that I will not learn it as much as I would like. I also can reassure myself by recognizing that I don’t need to know it all.

Today’s effects that I learned about are the glow and emboss effect. I was inspired to create an eclipse using this tool, and while I was at it I turned it into a logo for an imaginary web design studio (perhaps something I’ll use some day). I am a firm believer in turning anything new that is learned with a design software program into something usable. In this case, I was given an opportunity to practice typography as well.

I have just finished my second web page on my quest to design XHTML and CSS validated websites. For the beginner, the task is a repetitive series of trying to remember a piece of code, implementing it, finding out that it didn’t work, and then troubleshooting with Google. However, once completed, the reward is great. I can see some improvements over my first web page (although I wouldn’t say the design is any better).

Here is a link to my first page.

Here is a link to my second page.

Both pages are homework assignments for Franklin University, where I am a student, so don’t expect to find anything amazing. I would have spent more time developing a more interesting and comprehensive theme on the second page, but I have a Java test on Monday and didn’t feel like taking any more time on it. Perhaps as things get easier, I can spend more time developing better design.

Addendum:

I forgot to mention that I coded these pages “by hand” using only notepad and a web browser.