How to Start the Best Website Design

One of the most difficult things to do when you are a creative is to come up with the best website design for the website that you are building. There are just so many factors to take into consideration. Not only do you have to satisfy the user but you have to make the website stand out from the crowd.

Step 1: Do a little thinking

The first thing that I do when looking for the best website design is think a little about the website that I am about to create.

What kind of information am I going to be portraying?

How is that information linked together?

What is the most important aspect to highlight?

It can help a lot to sketch out a data architecture to sort out what belongs where and with what. It can really help you to focus on what is important and you should see an idea start to take shape.

Step 2: Google a little

There is nothing wrong with taking a look at what others think the best website design is. There are many different takes on websites out there and there is nothing stopping you from taking inspiration from what others have done before you.

Don’t worry about your work becoming derivative. The way that you work and the information that you are structuring is unique. What this kind of research does is give you clues and ideas that you can combine to make the best website design.

Step 3: Sketch

Whatever happened to the good old days of pen and paper sketches?

Sitting down with a pad of paper and a pen and roughing out a few ideas is sometimes just what you need to really get those creative juices flowing. It doesn’t matter if you actually can’t draw a straight line. No one is going to be looking at these sketches but you.

Sometimes sitting down in front of your computer screen is too intimidating and the pressure to produce something perfect the first time out is too intense and you block your flow. A sketch pad is far less intimidating and there is no worry about straight lines and perfect proportions – you’re just sketching after all.

Step 4: Play with your food

Every client will come with a set of colours, fonts and logos. Sit down and play with them. See how the different colours work together. See how the fonts look at different sizes. Try the different versions of the logo out in combination with those colours and fonts. Really hash out what combinations work best.

Step 5: Visualise

By now you should have some idea of where you want to go. Close your eyes and imagine what you want the website to look like. It may change as you go along – that is fine.

Step 6: And go!

Now you should be able to sit down at your computer and put together a home page. Or maybe you have the contact page or an about page clearest in your head. Put it on your screen. Fiddle with the colours and font sizes. Fiddle with the placement of capitals and your grid.

Once you have one page worked out, the rest typically flow from there.

Step 7: Take a break

Remember – the best website design will never happen overnight. It is a process. If you start to feel like you don’t have any ideas left or you are not liking what you have put together, take a break. Go for a walk. Read a book. Have a relaxing bath.

Not only do you owe it to your client, you owe it to yourself. A stressed out creative is not going to produce the best work that they can produce. If you need to take a timeout and let your mind percolate in the background, do it.

When a client asks you for the best website design you know you are in for a trip. The journey is just as exciting as the destination. Give yourself the time to give it your best. If the deadline doesn’t work for you, say so from the beginning and make sure that you negotiate terms that will allow you to work at a pace that will allow you to produce exactly what the client wants and needs.