Tips for Website planning

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
Firstly, I'm sorry for the misleading title. I don't have any great tips to aid Web site planning, but I am hoping that other people might share their Website planning pearls of wisdom. I've see lots of guides online, but they only really tell what makes a great site and what the design should be, not how to plan one from scratch.

I always find that I sketch Web site structure and rough layout on pieces of paper, but I am very disorganised, and I can rarely make sense of what I've written, especially when I need to keep changing things. I also find that sometimes the resulting Website/application only vaguely resembles the one I had in mind to start with. Often I design a single page, and spend about a day playing around with the layout to make it look nice as I can never decide which way to go.

I'm thinking of trying a new approach, where I work with the existing theme, but the actual content has no style information. I'm hoping that once I have the site finished, I can figure out how to neatly tie some CSS styles in to make the whole thing look nice and uniformed.

Have a top tip to help people like me who lack the super-duper 1337 ninja developer mindset and are totally disorganised? please share it!

Got a clever tool that helps you stay organised? Please share it!

Have a great tip to help indecisive people like me pick one method, or layout and stick with it without having to change things every 10 minutes? Please share it!

Have a great resource for tips on planning and design? Please share it!

Thanks for reading!

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
I think it might be a bit backward to think about design last. Or, it might just be a narrow definition of design to think it only happens when you get into CSS.

For me, design has always been the vision that leads a project. Database design, back-end code, front-end code, these are just tools that facilitate the design, the vision.

I think sketching on paper, being disorganized, is actually a great way to start. (Even with designing things like PHP classes, I have pages and pages of my notebook with hand-written code, mapping out ideas, crossing stuff out, thinking aloud.) Keep things open. Don't count any idea out, but don't lock out good ideas just because they come late.

I've been working on a personal project for about 2 years now. It's gone practically nowhere so far. I've redesigned it maybe 10 times and scrapped the whole codebase at least 4 times. But I'm so happy where it's at right now. I'm so happy I didn't finish idea 1, or 2, or 7, or 9, because 10 is my favorite. That matters to me.

Of course, my professional work exists within realistic timelines that matter to more people than myself. And my approach there is fairly conventional. Conversation. Sketching. Exploring. I usually don't get into Photoshop until I have a good image in my mind with where the site goes. Sometimes it's frustrating and it doesn't happen right away, but I've got ways of stimulating the mind when that happens ;-) (Not really. Not like that.)

I might be rambling, but I'm in a good mood for discussion. Feel free to ask anything else.

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
Thanks for your reply.

By design last, I meant that the theme has already been decided on, but the layout of forms for example, is decided afterwards. I agree that perhaps this is a backward way to do things. This is most likely due to my not having any formal education in Web design. I'm totally self-taught.

The other day, I spent almost an entire day tweaking a form, as I couldn't decide on the best way to do it. Very unproductive...

What often happens in my mind is that I think of a great idea, and go with it, and then I decide on something that would make it work even better, and still the ideas keep flying in, so I am torn between a lot of ideas, and can never decide which one to go for. Each have their pros and their cons, but weighing them up against one another is virtually impossible.

Generally, I tend to design my database first, as in my opinion, it's the content that makes the site, and then I build the site around that. My main handicap, however, is that I have no colour sense. I can design a good Website structure, but I'm always at a loss when it comes to artistic flare. For some reason I always find that my projects end up having a blue theme. Totally unoriginal...

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
Do you tend to deeply analyze your design decisions and become uncomfortable with them after doing so? Or do they never really feel right from the start? And what sort of state-of-mind are you generally in when you make design decisions?

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
Also, to your point about web forms, some design decisions are ripe for innovation and some are better left to well-known and -accepted design patterns. And there's a lot of in between. When you have a good direction from the start, it usually tends to naturally seep into these little areas.

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
Dear Doctor Williams,

Generally, I settle on a solution quite quickly. The trouble is that I have a seriously over-active brain, so more different ideas are constantly coming to me. I sometimes spend many days trying to decide how a page would be most intuitively laid out, and I'm still just as indecisive when it comes to doing it. Just when I think I have it all figured out, I realise I haven't. I'd have to say that the more I think about a decision, the more doubtful I become of it. I'm not sure if this is actually possible, but perhaps I am giving my work too much thought.

When I make design decisions, I am usually feeling very happy and confident. I like to believe that simple ideas are the best but as I start working, I can't help feeling that there was a better solution. I start feeling quite uneasy and frustrated with the "what ifs". What if I did it this way instead? What if I moved that to there? What if I put this in there? This brings me back to the design stage, but I can never narrow down those "what ifs".

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
There's a big difference between deciding on what's best for users and deciding on what's best personally. Like I mentioned, for my personal thing it's been ongoing 2 years of refinement. For professional stuff, I can typically knock something out in weeks or months (depending on the scope of the project).

If sporadic change is truly your nature, then [url="http://www.jasonsantamaria.com"]design for sporadic change[/url].

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
Thanks for the advice. Sadly, the problem isn't necessarily that I am designing for me rather than the user, it's that I can't help thinking ahead. What if the client wants me to add this or that? I feel the need to make my application fit in with the possibility. I know for sure that this is overkill, but I can't seem to help myself.

I think that what I should do, is just get on with it. If I feel the layout could be improved, I should just leave it anyway. If I still feel it could be improved at the end of the project, then that's the time to do it. As long as everything works, and the client likes it, it's all good.

I think my underlying problem is that I am more concerned about what other Web developers would think of my work, as I feel my work represents me. I've probably set the bar too high for myself.

I've seen some real master pieces on the Internet. BambooInvoice for example. I think I just need to code to my abilities, and not someone else's. I'm sure that there will always be a Web developer somewhere who would have something negative to say about anyone's design. At the end of the day, I should only really care about what the client wants, even if I feel it doesn't meet other Web developer's standards. As long as it's simple, fast, easy to use and uses valid CSS and HTML, I should be happy.

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
Well, your responsibility, as a professional designer, is to serve your clients not by pleasing their first impressions, but by crafting a design that is optimal for their sites' respective audiences. You design for users, not clients (except when they are one in the same, of course).

I never go into a design presentation overly concerned about how the client feels emotionally about a design because I'm confident that what I've created will serve their business most effectively. Good clients will leave their emotions out of the conversation. Good designers will too.

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
Very well said. Thanks!