Voiceover: Welcome back.
We are finally going to start building our killer web page.
Great.
But before diving right in,
you got to have a very clear plan
of exactly what we're gonna do.
With a good plan, you're already halfway
to a great website.
Because building a website is not just writing some code,
it's much more than that.
It's a whole process
from complete scratch
to a completely functional website.
And I'm going to reveal the seven real world steps
of that process right now.
Every good website in the world needs to follow
at least these seven steps.
You should definitely take some notes of these.
So let's go.
Start off by defining the goal of your project.
This can be showing your portfolio to the world,
selling an e-book, building a blog, or whatever you want.
Also define your audience.
Ask yourself which is the typically user
that will visit my website.
This is important because you should always design
with your goal and audience in mind.
Once your project is defined,
plan your content carefully.
This includes text, images, videos, icons, et cetera.
Remember what I told you about visual hierarchy
in the web design section?
It plays an important role when you start thinking
about what you want on your website
and what you don't.
Defining the content before actually starting the design
is called the content-first approach.
It means that you should design for the content,
instead of designing a webpage
and then filling it with some stuff.
Also define the navigation
and the site structure in this step.
You can draw a side map in this step if we're talking
about a bigger project.
Now it's time to get inspired
and think about your design.
Then get the ideas our of your head.
And by that I mean
sketch your ideas before you start designing.
It will help you explore ideas and create a concept
of what you want to build.
Using pencils and paper is a great way
of quickly retaining your valuable ideas.
And make as many sketches as you want,
but don't spend too much time perfecting anything.
Once you have an initial idea
you can concentrate on the details
when designing in HTML and CSS.
I advise you to never ever start designing
without having an idea of what you want to build.
Getting inspiration is very important in this phase
and I already told you how to do that.
Now after sketching start to design your website
using all the guidelines and tips you've learned
in the web design section.
You will do that using HTML and CSS
which is called designing in the browser.
So designing in the browser is basically designing
and developing at the same time.
There are actually more and more designers
leaving traditional design programs such as Photoshop
and start designing in the browser
such as we are going to do.
The biggest reason for this
is that you can't design responsive websites in Photoshop.
It also saves you tons of time.
And in this phase you'll use your sketches, content,
and planning decisions you've made in steps
one, two, and three.
This step is of course the biggest part
of building a website.
But don't forget,
all the other steps are also very, very important.
Now before you can launch your beautiful masterpiece
for the world to see it,
we have to optimize it's performance
and for search engines such as Google.
You don't want a slow website or one that no one can find.
Right?
Your optimized website is then finally ready to launch.
All you need for this is a web server
that will host your website and deliver it to the world.
I will later show you a way to do exactly that.
But the launch of your website is not the end of the story.
Now it's time to monitor your users' behavior
and make some changes to your website if necessary.
You should also update your content regularly
in order to show your users that your website is alive.
For instance a blog can be a very great way of doing that.
These steps I just showed you are so incredibly important
that I also included them in the course e-book
so that you always know where to find them.
Also in the e-book is the link to a document
called The Periodic Table of Web Design Process,
if you want an even deeper understanding
of the complete web design and development process.
So make sure to check it out.
Now over the rest of the course
we're going to put these
seven real world steps into action.
After that we will have a fully functional,
beautiful designed and developed website on the internet.
Excited? So let's start it.