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Welcome back to our "Building Better Websites" series, where we're breaking down the website creation process into easy-to-understand steps. Last time, we showed you how to create a wireframe for your website. Now, let's explore how to go from that wireframe directly to a design.
A wireframe is like a blueprint, providing a basic, visual guide for your website layout. But once you add in colors, typography, images, and other graphical elements, your wireframe starts to look more like a finished website. That's what we call a design.
Turning your wireframe into a design involves fleshing out the skeleton you've created with your wireframe. You'll add colors that match your brand, select fonts that align with your brand's voice, incorporate images that support your content, and more. You're moving from a sketch to a more realistic representation of your website.
A solid website design goes beyond just looking nice. It should represent your brand, make navigation easy for users, and encourage visitors to take the actions you want them to take. Your design should include a consistent color scheme, typography, high-quality images, clear call-to-actions, and intuitive navigation.
There are a number of digital tools that can help you turn your wireframe into a design. Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD are among the most popular due to their extensive features and user-friendly interfaces. Photoshop can also be used for web design, but it's not as specialized for this task. Tools like PowerPoint or Word might seem tempting, but they can be problematic due to their limited capabilities and lack of precision.
When deciding on a design tool, consider your comfort level with technology, your budget, and the complexity of your design. Figma, for example, is web-based and promotes real-time collaboration, making it a good choice for teams. Sketch, on the other hand, is known for its simplicity and wide range of plugins. Adobe XD is part of the Adobe suite, so it may be the best fit for you if you're already using other Adobe products.
We prefer to use Figma here at c|change because we're able to collaborate seamlessly. One designer can be working on the homepage while another designer might be adjusting wireframes. It's so simple! Check out the video below if you're starting Figma from scratch!
That's it for this step in our "Building Better Websites" series. By now, you should have a good understanding of how to take your wireframe and start turning it into a design. Next time, we'll dive deeper into the design process and give you some tips on how to fine-tune your design for an optimal user experience. Stay tuned!
