Repeat after me…“Form follows function.” “Form follows function.”

I will admit my ego and “creative” thinking does not always like to use this principle for design. But I will continue to fight through these growing pains by repeating and understanding this principle “Form follows function.” “Form follows function.”

Web site design is where the site content is created and assembled into pages. Quality web site design is critical to entice your audience and project a professional image.

Web Site Design Process

• Content Design
• Theme Design
  Development of the site's standard visual elements.
• Copy Development
  Text organization, writing, and editing
• Creative Feature Design
  Stand-alone graphics and multi-media beyond sites standard elements
• Production Processing
  Makes all content web-ready.

Creative Design generates the graphical and multimedia content within a web site. The majority of creative elements are static graphics yet as the web matures other multimedia mediums are becoming prominent. Increasing importance is being placed on high-quality creative design to elevate the credibility and perceived value of a web site, attract customers and aid in web site usability.

Creative Design Tips

Copywriting generates the text for a web site.

Copy exploration tips

Copy should be:

• Plain: always speak in terms your audience will understand.
• Concise: if you want it read keep it brief and scalable.
• Valuable: your message should be personally important to your readers.
• Transparent: your readers should notice your message not your vocabulary.

Further Reading

Copy Blogger:Copywriting Tips and Info

Copy exploration is an information gathering and organization process that provides the source material from which a web site is written. Most research can be accomplished from existing company literature, but interviews, surveys and other means are also used.

Copy exploration tips

• If you do not have a quality collateral library the exploration process will be significantly longer. To reduce the cost of a consultant you may want to have someone internally create draft documentation before the copywriter begins.

Page element design generates content that is designed to enhance a specific page. This broad category of creative elements can generally be thought of as anything that is not apart of the theme template. The vast majority are graphics, typical examples are; photo portraits in a biography pages, product photos or illustrations in an online catalog, or animated banners.

Page element tips

• Proper use of page elements can add to the decor of a site giving it a unique look and higher perceived value.

Theme Template Design creates the framework for your site's page layout. It is composed of all the creative elements that are persistent from one page to another.

Further Reading

Branding Element Design generates any graphical elements that are central to the aesthetics of a web site theme, i.e. company, product, or site logos. Branding elements guide theme and masthead design by setting color and shape requirements. Often a web site will incorporate multiple logos built around a central look (Logo Family).

Branding Tips

Creative Feature Design describes a broad range of special elements that surpass typical page design, such as web-based multimedia presentations. Feature design typically requires skills more specialized than standard web development. While design times can be long, special features can often be done independent of other web development and therefore can be a separate project.

Feature Elements Tips

Copy is all the written text in the body and sidebars of a web site. Copy for a web site requires a different style than other mediums to be effective. It is always a good idea to use a web writing specialist who understands the nuances and reader behavior on the Internet to create your site's copy.

Copy Development Process

• Exploration
  Information research and organization
• Writing
  Text generation
• Editing
  Style review, grammar and spelling proofreading