You may have observed some good websites or web applications on internet that attract lots up people like you. It is obvious that it is not a work of a day or two or not a one man show. There might be a whole team involved for many weeks. The process of developing such applications differs greatly, but follows some basic elements commonly. Therefore, here we will discuss some common basic elements of website designing.

Step: 1 – Project Definition

Information and Project Brief

First of all you are to collect information to define your project very well. The information should define your personal or business goals and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals. Therefore, information would be related to:

• Purpose

• Goals

• Target Audience

• Content

You can prepare a project brief based on the information gathered.

Step: 2 – Project Structure

Project Planning and Site Map

Develop a site map, a list of main topic areas as well as its sub topics. Site map will serve as a guide helping you place your content. It is necessary to create a good navigation for a site.

Then get a pre-design with WireFrame which is a skeleton of web page layout that helps in content placement. Do consider these points during this process.

o Assure that all important elements are included such as logo, navigation, content placement, images/video placement, login box, search, breadcrumbs, etc

o Reference the flowchart or project brief

o Avoid too much graphics

o Use text only to label the elements

o Clean and user friendly layout

o Define the linking structure

o Consider SEO

Step: 3 – Visual Design

The selected site map will turn in to the visual design now. Take care of detailing themes, colors, fonts, etc. Put every thing in to drawing software and prepare possible mock ups to approve again from the clients. Assure that all textual content should be well written and grammatically correct.

A high-quality design should have:

• Balance

• Unity

• Emphasis

• Contrast

• Rhythm

Step: 4 – Development

Coding is the next step now. Typical first step of coding is development of ‘Home’ page followed by a ‘shell’ for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the web site. Further, include the content and implement Multimedia elements.

It is necessary to keep in touch with your client frequently so you can make necessary changes according to their wish.

Step: 5 – QA & Testing

After completion of coding an extensive testing is an essential step so you can avoid future issues and bugs at this stage. Test the overall functionality, check for code validation, means your site meets current web standards, cross platform and cross browser compatibility.

Step: 6 – Lunch

When your site passes all tests successfully you will upload it on the server and make it public. Before official lunch, it is better you check for all help documents prepared for it. After lunching think over the maintenance schedule so you can keep it running and make your content fresh time to time.