The web design process is more elaborate than just tips and guidelines on how to create a good website. The tips and guides are very important as they will ensure you stick to quality when designing your site. However, the actual process takes more than just utilizing the tips. It is a step by step process of what you do to get a website up. It involves knowing the basic guidelines, applying them effectively and being creative. It is also about choosing the right application that will apply all the aspects of designing that you need while maintaining quality and a certain level of simplicity. This article will attempt to take you through how you can design your own site using the simplest most understandable language possible.

The first step to designing any website is having an idea of what you want to come up with so that you can choose the right tools to do the job. For a standard website, Adobe Photoshop will do just fine but you are not restricted from using other applications as long as they give you what you want.

To start off the design process, open an Adobe Photoshop document, select the height and width and also set the resolution. Make sure your height takes care of the scroll bar by increasing it a little more than what you intend to use for the site. Usually, a 1024×768 resolution is appropriate but you can go up to 800×600 for senior citizens.

After that, you proceed to fill in your background. When choosing the background color, stay away from dark colors especially if you are doing an e-commerce or a serious corporate site. Also, set your guides in order to know your right and left extremes. You can maximize your window in order to have a big canvas for working on with minimal interferences.  Expanding the document is important as it will help you see how the site will look on a browser. Doing your design on a screen with a larger resolution will suffice for this step: though it is not a must.

Once you are done preparing your document, insert your logo on a location of your choice. Most webmasters will place it on the upper left corner. It should contrast your background color for visibility since it is your trademark. After the logo, comes the header which consists of the navigation. Again, it is not mandatory for the navigation to be at the header but for commercial or corporate sites, it is more appropriate to stick to this location. Make sure your header stands out as it gives information on your site.

The header will obviously be followed by the content which should appear just below the header on a new layer contrasting with the navigation. Make sure the keywords in the content are standing out to attract visitors. You can incorporate an icon link on any object of interest on either side of the text. Text layers containing more links or information are appropriate to give details on the site. You can add some graphics to enhance your text as long as you don’t overuse them.

Finally, insert footer at the end of your page on a new layer with a little contrast from the background. The footer is not taxing to make as you can incorporate parts of the header along with little modifications. With this design, you have yourself a basic site and you can modify it further at will.