April 15th, 2021 | Updated on February 24th, 2023
In most cases, website building is a difficult task. Especially when you’re building a site, you want to win over customers and make sales effectively. Moreover, building a website that communicates your style, navigation solutions, design concepts, and so on, requires sleepless nights and gallons of coffee.
It isn’t a piece of cake. But this is what customers want today. The thing is, websites are an absolute necessity for any company looking to carve out its place in the market.
A good company site must represent the brand appropriately and accurately communicate the overall business message and address the needs and wants of the company’s target audience.
Fortunately, because the market is overflowing with all types and kinds of web design companies, any modern business has an opportunity to shine on the web.
Even with so many outstanding studios heavily engaged in web design, many of them excellent in their back-end construction, it is common for them to neglect a pivotal aspect of any website: front-end design.
The graphic design, skilled copywriting application, and website navigation are all pivotal, the site’s front-end is prospective client-facing, and therefore necessitates a thoughtful approach performed with dedicated extra attention and care.
Scattering design elements in an orderly manner just won’t cut it. Front-end demands understanding, logic, aesthetic feel, and sophistication. But most of all – proper coding.
If you work as a freelance web designer or with a website design company, the value of front-end design should never be something you ignore, as the neglect could lead to a project failure or, worse, the loss of credibility, customers, and sales revenue. There are several aspects to remember when it comes to front-end architecture.
We’ve included a few tips (not all strictly technical) that will help you get on the right track and produce better front-end projects.
Work Through Multiple Iterations
Here’s a little-known truth about web designers: The majority of what they placed on paper or a canvas in photoshop is scrapped.
What you see as the end result is likely just a tiny fraction of what they came up with during the design process.
Before letting anyone see their work, let alone a client, most designers typically go through multiple iterations before putting it in front of others for evaluation and opinion.
No one starts with a blank canvas and hits a masterpiece on the first try. In between the starting point and the end result come many variations, all with their own benefits and flaws, which the designer then repositions and tinkers with until they achieve what they regard as a successful design.
Without making moves they later scrap, the designer would not be able to weed out poor ideas from great ones.
However, how is this done in the front-end? Taking time in between versions is a tried and true approach.
Designers continue to work on their project for as long as they feel is necessary to achieve something that they are happy with.
They then put it aside, and allow multiple hours or even a day to pass before they reopen the project and take another look at it.
It is not an uncommon occurrence for a designer to be astounded by how different the work seems with a fresh perspective, with places that require changes, tweaks, or outright overhauls suddenly becoming evident.
Designers are surprised by things they missed or did not notice. It’s always hard to see the flaws in something one worked hard to put together, but it is an essential part of the design process, leading to significant changes that ultimately result in better output.
Feedback Is Essential
Developing an ‘eye for design’ can be very challenging, especially when a designer attempts to do so on their own. It’s important to elicit input from others in order to get a sense of what needs to be changed or reworked.
Of course, by others we mean other designers who can evaluate your work with a critical eye, and give you honest, constructive feedback, even that means pointing out a lot of flaws with the design you worked hard to establish.
It is most certainly not the right approach to have the work looked over by a friend, neighbor, or family member who is more apt to praise it, as perhaps to them it may seem like the fruits of a lot of effort.
There is no doubt that such an approach requires a level of bravery. Having someone potentially relegate your hard work as junk is never something someone wants to hear, but the key is not the demoralization, it is only to help elevate the work by removing the flaws spotted by a professional.
Fellow designers with a critical eye for your work will be able to assist you through pointing out things that you need to fine-tune or repair.
You can find many willing designers willing to help you out through online communities if you are not familiar enough with any others personally.
This may cause friction with fellow team members, as you may not agree with their critiques, but it is nevertheless entirely worthwhile. Designers give useful feedback to competent front-end developers, particularly though it is a blunt, but positive critique.
Therefore, it’s essential to build and sustain a good working relationship with the web design firm’s staff.
Since you’re all on the same team, coordination and teamwork are essential for achieving outstanding results.
Investing time in reinforcing relationships with the creators is time well spent because it can help everyone on the team do a great job to complete assignments on time and under budget.
Final Thoughts
Front-end development and design is a lengthy project that can take a long time to finish, so it is to everyone’s benefit to keep things moving.
The more understanding you develop in the application of the key principles and helpful strategies, the better end results you will achieve in a faster time frame.
The critique you get should not be used to sour your feelings, but rather to help you become better at your design methodology in the future.
A great end result makes everyone from yourself, to your team, and ultimately your client, happy. This helps your team thrive while you grow professionally as a designer who gets better at achieving better end-products.
Since the front-end is one of the most important stages, you must ensure that it is in order and running well before the website is launched.