For a website, you need to have an idea, you need to have a design and you need

Question

For a website, you need to have an idea, you need to have a design and you need to have data, events and output, right? Whether it be a blog, web app, Q&A site, search engine...

Anyway, that is only slightly related to my question. My question is, when designing a website, providing I know the purpose, what should I start with?

Should I start with the CSS, design and look&feel using dummy data first, or should I program in the logic, events and output, and style it later? What is the design process of most websites that are built from the ground up?

Explanation / Answer

A website is like any other IT project initially.

Start with requirements; analyse those requirements; formulate the needs and goals of the website - that is, what it must achieve.

After that stage you need to get it designed and made. Having worked in this industry for many years, I find the best approach is to work from the outside in.

The visuals should be designed first, flat designs, getting the site looking exactly how it should be, everything on the interface that needs to be there, in the way you want it there.

Once the interface is totally designed, then the HTML/CSS/Flash/Silverlight structural build can begin. This gets the framework up, this should include all the variant pieces of the puzzle, the sections that are hidden, the components that come and go, move about, etc.

Finally the functionality can be put in, controlling all the parts with the necessary state control front and back to achieve the desired response from the interface.

Note that the backend code that the interface relies upon can usually be done at the same time as the structural build, as once the interface is fully designed, the backend requirements for provision to the interface can usually be established.

The intermediate layer of control code between the structural build and the backend code is the last thing at any rate, as it is the last coupling between the layers in terms of what must be finished before you can start (the critical path).

NB. Following this pattern does have the advantage of creating a production-line assembly between workers if you have separate consultants, graphic designers, web developers/builders and software engineers. Passing through them in that order.

The only negative to that, is that there can be backlog issues if a given website is more demanding in a particular stage that slows up the corresponding team. If the same stage is regularly more significant this problem does get substantial. Not always controllable by hiring more people in that section either.

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