I got my layout what now?

[Punkygaming]

First of all I'd like to introduce myself as a beginner in web design, i've been studying it for a few months now and got photoshop CS5 and Dreamweaver CS5. So basically today I created a total nice looking layout for my website (Already purchased domain and got my temporarily site running at www.punkygaming.com but i see this as a starting site since I never liked the layout) So I got this layout ready, addes slices in photoshop then placed it in dreamweaver centerd it everything great. But my question basically is what now? I really love the layout I made and would like to have more webpages a lot more webpages with (almost) the same look for example if I click on community it opens the same stuff (except for the content on the index page) comparably with it being a template?, but do I need to create every single page in photoshop again? this is the layout that I made,

Feedback is very much appreciated, Punkygaming.

 

[Phreaddee]

NO, actually you've got the whole process wrong.

slicing from PS is so 10 years ago. dont do it.

the menu, the typography and the colour set all need major work.

the only time you'll need to use photoshop is to OPTIMISE your background and the photographs/imagery. making any more of this in photoshop is just pointless. Photoshop is not a web design tool. it is an image manipulation and retouching tool. when will people get that!

 

[ronaldroe]

it is an image manipulation and retouching tool. when will people get that!

When it stops working perfectly well for other purposes, such as creating graphics. I'm with you on not laying out an entire page and slicing it up in Ps, but I started out there, so I know Ps really well. So now, I use it to create individual graphics, which works fine. I'm starting to learn Fw and Ai only because I want to, but if I didn't, why would it matter? I can create the same graphics in Ps.

 

[Phreaddee]

yes ronald, creating graphics in PS is OK, even though there are better options, if thats what you've got and thats what you know, thats what you use, I get that, I appreciate that.

what I dont get is entire site layouts in PS. which we are on agreeance with.

 

[drding]

what I dont get is entire site layouts in PS. which we are on agreeance with.

I wonder if it comes down to ease of editing without bothering about coding. Just for example let's say I've got a layout in ps and I want to move a button from one corner to the other. At this point I just drag it on over in photoshop to the other side, slice it back up, and pull it on over to dreamweaver. I'm not thinking about positioning or floats or any of that, it's just click and drag. It's like a WYSIWYG editor with a few more steps involved.

I'm not saying it's the right way mind you, I've never sliced anything in ps to be honest. But, that might be where people are coming from doing it that way. maybe at least some of them.

 

[ronaldroe]

I wonder if it comes down to ease of editing without bothering about coding. Just for example let's say I've got a layout in ps and I want to move a button from one corner to the other. At this point I just drag it on over in photoshop to the other side, slice it back up, and pull it on over to dreamweaver. I'm not thinking about positioning or floats or any of that, it's just click and drag. It's like a WYSIWYG editor with a few more steps involved.

I'm not saying it's the right way mind you, I've never sliced anything in ps to be honest. But, that might be where people are coming from doing it that way. maybe at least some of them.

I used to build out pages in Ps, but just slice out the elements I needed without the code. A case can be made for laying the whole thing out so you know where to start from. I stopped because I realized I was spending too much time designing the site twice. Now, instead of providing a comp, I use style tiles or mood boards, and I go straight to code. Doing it this way cuts 10+ hours out of the whole thing.

You got one thing right, for sure, though. Slicing out code from Ps isn't the right way to do it.

 

[drding]

I used to build out pages in Ps, but just slice out the elements I needed without the code. A case can be made for laying the whole thing out so you know where to start from. I stopped because I realized I was spending too much time designing the site twice. Now, instead of providing a comp, I use style tiles or mood boards, and I go straight to code. Doing it this way cuts 10+ hours out of the whole thing.

You got one thing right, for sure, though. Slicing out code from Ps isn't the right way to do it.

Wow! Well I've learned something new today, I had no idea about style tiles. I just did a quick search and found a few articles explaining them and I have to say that's a pretty ingenious way to work out a design.

I'm more on the development end rather then the design end, so when it comes to sitting down and designing things I get really lost sometimes.
So I would guess using a style tile coupled with a simple wireframe you can pull the whole thing together a lot quicker then spending hours trying work both (layout and design) out at the same time in a fully rendered mockup. Plus you can put more focus on the overall "feel" of the site and it's major elements. And you're right, in the end you would be doing the whole thing twice otherwise.

And I liked they idea that you can put together a few tiles for different style options without building full mockups for each variation on a design.

Pretty awesome, thanks for sharing that!