Untangling the links and clicks between creativity & technology together – Creative Software Reviewed By Practice.
So, you’re about to start a new online venture, beginning with a decision that may make or break the future success and efficiency at which your website will perform in a sustainable and profitable manner…
Your first question goes something along the line of; Which website building method should I go for?
Today, Adobe Dreamweaver is perhaps the most popular application to consistently provide easier and somewhat intuitive means for creating custom page layouts and designs. Unfortunately, for the occasional or ‘sporadic’ user, Adobe Dreamweaver requires a subscription fee, which may work well for a business that can justify the monthly or yearly fees.
However, this model may not work well for most independent creators. A one-time fee is more in line with the expectations and affordability of most individuals that work independently. I personally, eventually settled for an affordable app developed by a company located in Bath, UK, called FreewayPro.
I don’t believe it was a very popular app, however, it seemed to do the trick for someone who didn’t really understand simple things like SEO, embedding video, uploading html files to a server, plus all those other hardly ever mentioned related tasks. Whilst designing your web pages in the usual way, FreewayPro would automatically write the code in the background for you.
Through using FreewayPro it was relatively easy to pick-up on the various requirements for setting up a html website and some basic SEO requirements, such as header tags, meta descriptions, titles and keywords.
Designing visually is perhaps the most natural way for most us to create communicative material. But someone has to create the code in the first place…
I have always imagined the process of website design as emulating, in its own digital way, how a designer would work using a parallel motion drawing board, with drawing instruments and other tools at the ready. And in my opinion, WordPress meets that possibility due to the surrounding developments that have been made to the leading plugins and themes made for the platform.
Non-coders can now use applications that allow creating web design layouts without having to code every step of the way. These applications appear to aim at being intuitive as well as familiar to users of conventional design practices, or at least they should.
Now, please correct me if I am wrong, but not too long ago, building a customised website with the type of appearance and functionality that visitors respected, still required you to perform some coding acrobatics, and that’s even with WordPress.
Why WordPress is so highly recommended for a range of different websites
There is something innately ‘tribal‘ about website design communities and the wider industry that seems to collect the use of labels. And no wonder, as there are a number of different levels of combined specialisation that come together in producing a complex and high-end website property.
So, for example you may have a;
– Website Designer,
– Website Developer (front-end)
– Website developer (back-end)
– UI Designer
– UX Designer
– Interaction Designer
– Art Director
So here’s the thing, besides the large and complex projects that may benefit from an army of “designers”, when it boils down to pulling together all the components that gives a WordPress website its distinct look, feel and functionality. This can all be done, through the use of add-ons; plugins, themes and maybe a few coding tweaks. However, is this design?
WordPress vs Traditional HTML website design
Besides the obvious Content Management System, as well as the handling of dynamic content such as updated blog posts. As a Content Management System (CMS), WordPress is geared towards making the organising of content easily manageable.
Most of all, you and your team can create, edit and publish new content wherever you have access to the internet. You can even create custom layouts, landing pages, portfolios, galleries and other marketing related content,
Graphic designer methods for building custom layout websites
The typical thought process for those with a traditional background and education in website design may find themselves reaching for Adobe Photoshop as a starting point. Adobe Photoshop, provides the necessary CSS for converting Photoshop generated files into website pages.
I was hoping that Affinity Photo would also provide this functionality, however, this is not the case ( at least not at the time of writing). The question now then is; How necessary is this process?
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If for any reason you happen to be looking for an alternative screen design program, I mean other than Adobe Xd. InVision Studio is a very good example of software that seem to have been designed by developers with a good grasp of what it is their users want out of a screen designer.
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