Archive for Designing

The Website Development Process

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The Website Development Process

Our three characters: a programmer, a designer and a client.

A while ago I put this photo on my flickr page and it was chosen to go on the official flickr blog as the photo of that day (September 23rd). To date it has been viewed over 2000 times.

The photo was actually one in a whole series of photos I shot for a
client presentation, detailing the website design / development process
in a manner that was easily understandable and also fun to look at.
This article takes you through that process, using the same photos. We
hope you enjoy the pictures and if it also helps you to manage your
workflow better if you are starting out as a web designer then that’s
cool too :)

However, as is the organic nature of these things, there are an
infinite amount of variables that can affect the project timeline. For
that reason, projects are never ever as clear-cut as in this
sequence of photos. Things may need to be done over and over, steps may
get jiggled around, you may need more time for CMS / back-end
development etc – so please think of this sequence as merely a basic example of the kind of process that I have grown comfortable with, speaking as a web designer/developer.

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Step 1: Discussion

Naturally you’re going to want to start your project with a client
chit-chat. At the first meeting you need to establish the basic scope
of the work – what needs to be done, roles and responsibilities, who is
your point of contact for materials (text content, images) etc.

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Step 2: Brainstorming

Think about how you are going to structure things. What is
important? What is not? What needs to be on every page? Depending on
the scale of the project you might want to create a visual sitemap for
your client. Preparing a sitemap is essential if you are reorganising
content in any way.

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Step 3: Wireframe

A wireframe is a skeleton website, indicating all the navigation,
function and content elements that will appear on the final website,
but with no graphic design elements. It is used to iron out
any problems or missing elements, and will act as the blueprint for the
content, design and construction work that comes later.

How you create the wireframe is up to you – for small sites it might
be fine to just line-draw it in Illustrator or Photoshop, but for
larger, more complex sites, it might be necessary to actually code the
wireframe into HTML so the client can click around to check everything
is in the right place.

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Step 4: Planning the Content

Working from the sitemap and wireframe, you and the client get
together to start planning the content – specifically the text. Content
planning and writing is probably the biggest workload the client will
have during the project – and it can really take some time.

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Step 5: Initial Design

Whilst all this is going on, the designer can be working on the base design – the homepage and main sub-level pages.

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Step 6: Client Feedback

When the base design is ready, the client needs to check that you
are heading in the right direction and suggest adjustments to the
design accordingly.

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Step 7: Design Rework

…which will probably involve going back and tweaking things…

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Step 8: Client Approval

…until everyone is happy.

This process of work-feedback-rework is repeated at
various stages in the project. Besides preparing the content, this
confirmation process is also one of the main responsibilities of the
client.

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Step 9: Additional Page Design

Once the base design is agreed on, you can start working on the layout and design of each of the individual pages of the site.

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Step 10: Confirmation

And once again they are checked, reworked and then finally confirmed.

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Step 11: Build the HTML…

You can then begin to build the actual HTML pages…

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Step 12: …and the CSS

…and the CSS (I guess I could have put that all in one step, but I really like the little robot guy).

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Step 13: Present to Client

Feedback again. You and the client work together – work-feedback-rework – to polish and tweak things until you have a completed site.

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Step 14: Test

The final stage of production is the debug. The site needs to be
tested across all platforms to iron out any technical problems, and
checked thoroughly for content errors. Naturally, throughout the HTML
& CSS development stage you should be checking cross-browser
functionality anyway but you definitely need a big check at the end too – one that you actually set aside a decent amount of time for.

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Step 15: Launch

The picture says “The End” – but of course you don’t just grab the
cheque and run for the door – you need to watch the site for at least
around 10 days or so after launch in case of problems, and if necessary
fix things.

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101 Hidden Tips & Secrets For Photoshop

1. Press Tab will hide tool bar and palette, Shift+Tab will hide only palette.

2. Hold Shift + click the top blue bar for toolbar and palette will move them to the nearest edge.

3. Double click the top blue bar, on any palette window, to minimize it.

4. Double click the gray background will bring up open file option, Hold Shift+double click will open up the browser.

5.
Sick of the default gray background around your image? Select paint
bucket, hold shift and click on the gray background, it will change to
whatever color you have in your foreground color box.

6. In Photoshop, all “Cancel” buttons in a window can be changed to a “Reset” button by holding Alt.

7. Caps lock will switch your cursor for accuracy.

8. Press F button, it will switch between 3 different screen modes and give you more working area.

9. To draw a straight line, click then move to the end point and hold shift + click.

10. Hold Ctrl will temporary make any tool into move tool until you release Ctrl.

11. Ctrl + Alt and click drag the image, it will make a duplication of the current image over lay on top.

12. Hold Space bar, it will make any tool into “Hand Tool” until you release Space bar.

13. While in Zoom Tool, Ctrl+space = zoom in, alt+space = zoom out.

14. Hold Ctrl and press “+” or “-” it will change the % for image in navigator window.

15.
When Using eyedropper tool to capture foreground color, hold Alt and
click, it will instantly capture the color for background.

16.
With Measure Tool, draw a line then hold Alt and draw another line from
the end of the first line, it will measure the angle.

17. Ctrl+Alt+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z will go back and forth in the history.

18.
Alt+Backspace and Ctrl+Backspace will fill in the whole screen with
foreground color or background color, Shift+backspace will bring up
option window, Alt+Shift+Backspace and Ctrl+Shift+Backspace, will fill
the image with foreground or background color but will leave the alpha
transparent area alone.

19. When free transforming with Ctrl+T,
hold Alt to keep the original image and then to transform a duplicated
layer of it. Ctrl+Shift+T to repeat whatever you did in the last
transform.

20. To make sure your Crop is on the edge of the image, hold Ctrl while cropping.

21. Ctrl+J will duplicate the current layer.

22.
Ctrl+Shift+E will merge all visible layers to one layer,
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E will make a copy of the original and merge all visible
layers.

23. While using Marquee Tools, hold Alt it will make the starting point as a center of the selection.

24. Ctrl + D to deselect, Ctrl+Shift+D to reselect what you deselected.

25. While selecting with Marquee tool, pressing the space bar can allow you to move the selection.

26. Hold Shift and press “+” or “-” it will switch between the layer mode:

N = Normal
I = Dissolve
M = Multiply
S = Screen
O = Overlay
F = Soft Light
H = Hard Light
D = Color Dodge
B = Color Burn
K = Darken
G = Lighten
E = Difference
X = Exclusion
U = Hue
T = Saturation
C = Color
Y = Luminosity
Q = Behind 1
L = Threshold 2
R = Clear 3
W = Shadow 4
V = Midtones 4
Z = Highlights 4

***The shortcut works even for following situation:

***Alpha turned off, Indexed Mode, Line tool, Bucket Tools, Dodge and Burn Tools

27. While using Brush or any other tools, change the opacity by typing the number.

*** type one number for % of it’s ten times [4=40%]

***type two number for exact % [press 7 then 2 will get 72%]

28. Hold Alt while clicking on the eye icon beside the layer, it will hide all other layers.

29. Hold Alt while clicking the pen icon beside the layer, it will unchain this layer from all layers.

30. Select a layer, hold Alt and click the top edge of another layer, it will group them.

31. Hold Alt and click the button “Create a new layer”, it will create a new adjustment layer.

32.
Select a layer and hold Alt, then click on the garbage can button. It
will instantly delete the layer, marquee where you want alpha and
Ctrl+click the “Create new channel” button, it will create an alpha
only on the area you marquee.

33. File> Automate > Contact
Sheet: this can create a small thumbnail for every file, this can save
you some time from searching.

34. When Move Tool is selected,
toolbox on top can be useful from time to time, these are “Auto select
layer” and “Show bounding box”.

35. While Move Tool is selected,
hold Shift (Alt+Shift+Right click) and allow whether or not to make a
current layer chain with your upper layer.

36. With grid on,
click the top left corner of the grid and drag to anywhere on the image
to set the pivot, double clicking on the icon again reset the pivot.

37. After, draw a path on the image with pen tool, Ctrl+shift+H can hide/show it.

38. Control Navigator with keyboard sometimes can be more time efficient than mouse.

***

Home = move to top left corner
End = move to right bottom corner
PageUp = move up one page
PageDown = move down one page
Ctrl+PageUp = move left one page
Ctrl+PageDown = move right one page
Shift+PageUp = move up 10 pixel
Shift+PageDown = move down 10 pixel
Ctrl+Shift+PageUp = move left 10 pixel
Ctrl+Shift+PageDown = move right 10 pixel

39. Ctrl+Tab allows you to switch between different image files you are working on.

40. F12 = Revert to how the file was the last time you saved it.

41. Shortcuts for Channel: RGB, CMYK, indexed color…

***

Ctrl+”~” = RGB
Ctrl+1 = red
Ctrl+2 = green
Ctrl+3 = blue
Ctrl+4 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path
Ctrl+”~” = CMYK
Ctrl+1 = light green
Ctrl+2 = pink red
Ctrl+3 = yellow
Ctrl+4 = black
Ctrl+5 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path
Ctrl+1 = Indexed
Ctrl+2 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path

42. hold Ctrl then you can draw a red box in the Navigator thumbnail for viewing.

43. Hold Alt and click on any of the history steps, that step will be copied and become the most recent one.

44. Alt drag a step from a serial action can copy it to another action.

45. Alt-click the flare preview thumb, and you can fill in numerical co-ordinates for lens flare.

46. Holding Shift + Alt while transforming an object will do it proportionally, from the center.

47.
If you have the move tool selected and you want something duplicated
just hold the alt key and move the image, holding the Shift + Alt while
doing this, it will move it along one axis.

48. If you want to
straighten an image that is crooked (maybe from scanning), click on the
eyedropper tool or hit the I key 3 times to get the ruler. Click on the
left side of the straight edge, then the right side of the straight
(but crooked) edge. The choose Image> Rotate Canvas> Arbitrary,
Photoshop will give you the degrees of rotation you just click ok.

49.
If you create something in Illustrator, copy and paste it in Photoshop,
it will ask you if you want this to be a pixel, path, or shape layer.

50.
If you have a mask on a layer and you want to place a image in there
and keep the mask. Simply open the image, say copy, and then Ctrl click
on the layer to select the mask and use Shift + Ctrl + V to paste it
into the mask which will also put it on a new layer as well.

51. To center an image, Ctrl + A , Ctrl + X, Ctrl + V, I think it also puts that image on a new layer.

52. Ctrl+E will merge the highlighted layer down to the next

53. When you have a brush selected, using [ or ] will scroll up or down that brush list.

54.
Double clicking the zoom tool will make the image 100%, double clicking
the hand tool will fit the image to your screen resolution.
55. Typing Content:

Ctrl + H will hide the highlight on your selected type.

If
you click once while your type is selected on the font list, you can
use your arrows to scroll up and down and see the fonts change on the
fly!

Alt + Left or Right arrows will change your tracking in increments of 10
Ctrl + Alt + Left or Right arrows will change your tracking in increments of 100
Ctrl + Alt + Up or Down arrows will change your leading in increments of 10 pts
Shift + Ctrl with < or > will change your font size in increments of 2 pts

56. Ctrl + Alt + T to make a copy of the layer in which you want to transform.

57. Ctrl + Alt + Right arrow. duplicates the layer you are on.

58. Change the active layer : Alt + [ or ].

59. Move the active layer up and down : Ctrl + [ or ].

60. Link 2 layers: with move tool click in the first layer hold Shift and click in the second one.

61.
Ctrl+[plus key] will let you zoom in on an image anytime while
Ctrl+[minus key] zooms out. Ctrl+Alt+[plus key] will zoom in AND RESIZE
the window to fit the image size… same for Ctrl+Alt+[minus key] as
well.

62. When using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, click backspace to undo a lasso step.

63. Pressing X will switch the selected foreground and background colors.

64. Pressing D will reset the foreground and backgrounds colors to black and white.

65.
If your image has multiple layers, create a Marquee selection and press
Ctrl+Shift+Cit won’t work if you selected a hidden layer) will copy the
image into memory as if they were flattened! Paste it on a new document
to see the result.

66. Ctrl+Alt+Z will do multiple undo, versus just one.

67. Ctrl+click a layer thumbnail to select the layer transparency

68. To see what your layer mask looks like (and edit it), Alt+click its thumbnail in the layers palette

69.
Press and hold Ctrl+Alt and click the Help bar with your mouse, drag it
down and highlight “About Photoshop” and let go of the left mouse
button for a different About Photoshop splash/screen.

70. When using Polygon lasso tool hold Shift to make a perfect line, it goes every 30 degrees

71.Photoshop
CS2: Group many layers by clicking the layers you want to group by
clicking it while holding the Shift key down, and then press Ctrl+G to
group them into a folder for means of better organization.

72. Ctrl+Shift+N creates a new layer with a dialog box; Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N gets you a new layer without the hassle.

73. Back to brush, [ and ] will increase/decrease your brush size, Shift + [ or ] will soften or harden your brush edge.

74.
Still in [ and ], Ctrl + [ or ] will move your currently selected layer
up and down the hierarchy and Shift + [ or ] will select upper layer or
lower layer.

75. Stamp Tool (s) is used to copy an area of image
(defined by alt+clicking and area) and paint it somewhere else
(cloning). It also works when you have multiple images open at the same
time. Alt click an area of any opened file image and paint it anywhere
else.

76. After you created a text you can click on font type
tab and tap “down” key over and over to scroll through the font list
and see the changes in (relatively) real time. A feature that I am
tired of waiting to happen in illustrator.

77. Still in text
mode, a trick from Microsoft word to apply hi-light to your text hit
Ctrl+Shift+ < or > to resize your text, to your preferred font
size. Pressing Ctrl key while you are typing also gives you a free
transform box temporarily and will go if you release it. Resizing text
also works by pressing Ctrl+T (on selected layer, not when you are
typing). It still retains as an editable text layer after.

78.
And remember, pressing enter when you type will take you to a new line
just like typing a letter but pressing Ctrl+Enter or Enter on numeric
key will finish what you type.

79. You can drag a layer on to
any other opened images in Photoshop and it will copy it as a layer
(better than copy and paste image). Holding down Shift while moving it
will snap the image right on the center of the other opened image

80. If you are working with sets….

Click
on the set, in the blending mode it shows pass through by default… if
you have an adjustment layer within a set and you want that adjustment
layer to effect those layers underneath it within the set only, set the
blending mode of the set to “normal” instead.

CODE

Mentioned before with more explanation:

-
Pressed F to switch to 3 different viewing mode… when I first try it
I said “wtf? what it’s for?” Well, if you are sick of painting your
image on the corners just to find yourself resizing your current image
window, with F you can pan way outside your image. Happy corner
painting!!

- Create a new file, 500×500 px, create a new
layer, get a standard brush and paint a dot on the top center of your
image (like the number 12 position on a clock). Press Ctrl+Alt+T, it
will duplicate your original layer and free transform the new one. Move
the pivot point (the circle with little dot in it found when you are
free transforming something) to the center of your image, rotate your
image 30 degrees to the right and hit OK to confirm the transform

now………

Be excited……….

Hit Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T 10 times and see what happens!

81.
When using the “move tool” you can select any layer by holding down the
CTL key(CMD on a Mac) and clicking on the part of the layer on the
canvas with your mouse. This way you won’t have to go to the Layers
palette every time and you don’t have to keep checking on or off the
auto select options for the move tool.

82. You can link up
layers without going into the layers palette, by selecting the layer
(how I just mentioned above) and holding down CTL + Shift(CMD + SHIT on
a Mac) for each additional layer you want to link up. You can unlink
them by clicking on the layer again.

83. You can delete more
than one layer at a time…….by linking up all the layer you want to
delete, and holding down CTL(CMD on a Mac) while you click on the
garbage icon to delete the layer.

84. When using the type tool
you can ok it by pressing CTL + Enter(CMD + Enter on a Mac) instead of
clicking on the check mark on the options.

85. If you have more
than one type layer, and want to make any of the following changes
color/font/size/alignment/initializing to all of the type layers at the
same time…..All you have to do is link up the type layer, hold down
the Shift key and in the options for the type tool make your change
i.e. color, size, etc.

86. You can use your number pad to change
opacity for a layer…. I.e. type 5 and the opacity will be 50; type 55
and the opacity will be 55. You can use the number pad for any tool
that uses opacity…like the airbrush tool, stamp tool, brush,
gradient, etc.

87. Pressing Tab key will hide the Tools palette
and any other palette that you have on the stage. Pressing “F” will
change between Full Screen modes. Using these two tips you can view
your work Full Screen without any palettes.(You can press CTL+Alt+0 to
fit your work to the screen, or you can press CTL+0 to zoom to 100%)

88. Pressing the “+” and “-” keys while holding down CTL+Alt will resize the whole document window, not just the work area.

89.
You can delete a layer by holding down the “Alt” key and pressing “L”
twice……actually now with Photoshop 7 you got to press “L” three
times. It’s not actually a keyboard shortcut, but it’s a quick way to
do it….don’t know if it works on a MAC.

90. Pan documents with the space bar.

91. Ctrl+click a layer (in layers palette) to select it’s transparency.

92. Ctrl+Alt+click between 2 layers in the palette to group them.

93. Alt + click in “add layer mask” button to add a black layer mask (instead of a white one).

94.
When you select something, pressing Ctrl+J will copy the selected area
and add another layer with the copied area – opposing copying the
layer, making a new layer, and pasting it.

95. To glue the
palettes together (all palettes combined into one strip), you just drag
& drop a palette onto the end of another palette (watch the
rectangle that indicates where the palette will get attached to).

96. Hold down Alt while Burning to Dodge instead, and vice versa.

97.
Ctrl-click a layer to select an objects; alternatively, you may select
more than one object/s in more than 1 layer by holding Shift while
using the method just mentioned (Ctrl-click). To deselect, just press
Ctrl+D.

98. If you have a mini scroll on your mouse, you may use that to zoom in (scroll up) or zoom out (scroll down).

99.
Need to locate a layer quick? Use the Move Tool (V) and right click on
the area the object lays. There should now be a “cursor-menu” with all
the layers that is in that particular area. Now take a good guess and
see which one of them fits the shoe; select a layer and Ctrl-Click the
layer in the Layer Palette – see if the selection traces the object you
desired to edit/find. Useful for those messy people (i.e. me!).

100.
Need to get rid of a background quick? Assuming you at least know how
to crop around an object, do so. Now press Ctrl+I or Shift+Ctrl+I for
Inverse Selection. Press Ctrl+X to %@#!* that part out, and you should
be left with the object!

101. Want to save the time from loading
All your Photoshop brushes, when your Photoshop accidentally forgets to
load them up (happens to me sometimes)? Select the brush tool, and
click the little arrow pointing right (located at the top toolbar),
next to the Master Diameter tick. Go down to Preset Manager and now
there should be a menu of all the brushes currently loaded. Click on
the first brush (top left) and scroll down to the bottom. Now hold
Shift and click the last brush (bottom right). This should highlight
all the brushes. See the “Save Set” to the right in the menu? Click
that and name your brush set whatever you want, for this matter I just
name it All (so I remember that this brush set contains all the brushes
I currently have loaded, and is located near the top when loading the
brushes up).

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