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Web Page Design Module 5: Planning and Designing a Website

1. Planning the site
2. Setting up the basic structure
3. Creating the pages
4. Testing the pages
5. Modifying the pages
6. Publishing the site
7. Repeating steps 4, 5, and 6 until the goal is reached

Cengage Learning, 2013

When you research your website you are determining the site’s purpose and requirements. You will need to answer questions such as the client’s goals, what tools to use, and who will create or provide data and media files required on the site. After thorough research you can begin to develop a plan for your site. A plan is created by sketching a storyboard or wireframe either freehand or by using the drawing tools in Microsoft Word to represent the relationships between every page on your website. Figure B-2 below is a the wireframe designed for The Striped Umbrella website.

Cengage Learning, 2013

Before you create your website, plan for the storage of your files by creating a system of folders and decide where on your computer you will store the site. This file structure should mirror the storyboard or wireframe. A website can contain many hundreds of files. If the folder structure used to store these files is easy to understand and use, the website creation process will generally go much more smoothly than if files are stored in a disorganized fashion.

After you have created an organized file system you can collect the content and create the pages for the site. Include time for testing your website using multiple web browsers in developing your plan. Once the site meets the requirements you can make it available to users by publishing it on an internal website which does not have public access.