Design To Build – An Essential Principle Of A Good Web design

One of the essential principles of a good website design is "Design to Build". Check out this quick guide to get acquainted with it in detail.

Life has gotten a lot easier since web designers transitioned to CSS layout, but even now it’s still essential to think about how you are going to build a website when you’re still in Photoshop. The professional web designers at Frisco Web Solutions always consider things like:

Can it actually be done?

You might have picked a wonderful font for your body copy, but it is actually a standard HTML font. You might have a design that looks stunning, but is 1100px wide and will result in a horizontal scroller for the majority of users. It’s vital to know what can and can’t be done, which is why we believe every web designer should also build sites, at least sometimes.

Can small changes in your design greatly simplify how you build it?

Sometimes moving an object around in a design can make a big difference in how you have to code your CSS later. Especially, when elements of a design cross over each other, it adds a little intricacy to the build. So if your design has, say three elements and each element is completely separate from each other, it would be really easy to build. On the other hand, if all three overlap each other, it might still be easy, but will probably be a bit more complex. You should find a balance between what looks good and small changes that can simplify your build.

Are you doing anything that is technically difficult?

Also with CSS positioning, there are various things like a vertical alignment that are still a bit painful and sometimes best avoided.

What happens when a screen is resized?

Do you need repeating backgrounds? How will they work? Is the design centered or left-aligned?

For large sites, especially, can you simplify things?

There was a time when we at Frisco Web Solutions used to make image buttons for the websites. So if there was a download button, for instance, we would make a little download image. In the recent past, we’ve now switched to using CSS to make the buttons and have never looked back. Sure, it means the buttons don’t always have the flexibility we wish for, but the savings in build time for not having to make dozens of little button images are huge.

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