Week 2 Page 8: Steps 8-10
STEP 8: Develop a production timeline and set deadlines
Once a client has given you the green light to produce the project, it's really important to develop a timeline and set realistic final deadlines. One thing to remember is: everything takes longer than you think!
Try to anticipate problems that might affect a deadline and communicate your expectations to your client. For example, if they start adding extra pages, make sure they know the deadline will be put back. First and foremost, be sure to set realistic goals and timelines.
STEP 9: Assemble a production/development team (if necessary)
Assess what development skills might be necessary to produce the site and make sure you know people who are able to do the job (the characters on the left look like they may not be the best choice!). It's a good idea to contact them early in the process. You may need to develop coding standards if you are working as part of a team. Also consider using versioning software, like GitHub, to track updates and changes made by team members.
STEP 10: Produce the final design after client approval of initial design and prototypes
In the final design phase, a designer will work on and integrate site assets such as images, site graphics, icons, typography, video etc. When developing the final design components, the designer has to keep in mind both the final server destination of the site (independent server or Wordpress for example) and the media/device used to display it.
During the design and development phase, be sure to always keep the final viewing "destination" of your site in mind. You may need to have versions of the site that adapt to different screen sizes and/or display devices and to include the code to detect the different media. Alternatively you might create one web site design that "responds" to different display media by adjusting the placement of content (horizontal for computer screens and vertical for smart phones, for example). These layouts are called Responsive designs. We'll talk more about this in a later lecture but if you're interested, your textbook discusses them on pages 40-41.
Development tools
Sometimes designers use Photoshop to create and slice the graphic elements in their designs (although they might also use Adobe Illustrator, Fireworks or even InDesign). These graphic elements may then be imported into Dreamweaver for final coding and linking or uploaded to a content management system like WordPress. Some designers prefer to hand off the project to experienced programmers at this stage. There are now a variety of businesses that specialize in taking design layouts and converting them into coded sites which are then stored in their custom Content Management Systems (which allow users to easily update content). Here is a local company (in Sebastopol) that offers these services:
Content Management Systems (CMS) store web site content online and allow for easy editing. Users do not have to know sophisticated coding or programming to use them. The main leaders in the CMS market are: Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. These are all free open-source content management systems. They have different strengths and weaknesses so it's important to research their features before you decide which one to use. Drupal tends to be known as a developer's CMS whereas Joomla is supposedly more suited to designers. Wordpress offers numerous templates and is very user-friendly. If you want to know more about using CMS for web design, please read this article:
Adobe MUSE: The most recent development/design tool to appear on the market is Adobe MUSE. This software claims to remove all the coding headaches from the web design process and allows designers to build a layout without knowing HTML5 or CSS3. It has been met with mixed reviews but may be the answer for designers who want a flexible visual layout program that doesn't require programming knowledge. Here is a quick video overview of the program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTG97uP_NZ8 Links to an external site.
Conclusion
Hopefully you now have a better idea of the graphic designer's role in web design and the process involved in designing a web site. During this course you will be using some of the skills and techniques outlined in this lecture as you develop your own web site designs.
This ends the lecture on the role of the graphic designer in the web design process!
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