Accomplishing Website Designs With Limited Budget And Time

By Author: Steven Brown
Total Articles: 364
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Limited time and money often makes working on website design and developing interfaces difficult. The term “budget” is often considered ruthless with negative definitions that suggest poor quality, unreliability and shortcuts. The approach reinstated in this article does not manifest those shortcomings and the budget approach can actually improve the overall product. In fact streamlining the designing and developing processes that would deliver affordable responsive solutions may actually be good.

This approach of working, stemmed from the principle drawn from the concept of “mobile first.” Coined by Luke Wroblewski and others, sometimes it is imperative to think without the mobile. As denoted by Tom Maslen, the definition termed the approach of core experience in website design to end-user experience irrespective of the screen it would be displayed. This would generally state which content, functionality, design elements and branding would befit the customers more. This approach would also consider the platforms, screen size and operating system that would enable viewing of the website. Identifying all these ...
... core components would enable delivery of a stronger product that would successfully address the requirements of the users. This would be achieved without compromising the essence of the business offerings; all the while, the device remains atheistic. This thought process would enable to trim away all the excess fat in the website like the superfluous elements, distracting content and other bending navigation modules. Finally, focusing the efforts in creating and developing a website that addresses the core experiences would also save time and yet successfully achieve everything within the budget. So, now as the best website design approach has been understood, we can now translate the same into the design and build process.

It is already established fact that simplification and optimization would result in saving significant amount of time and money in the front-end development process. The information architecture, CMS specifications, server and hardware selection and content creation would also determine the digital experience. The simplest form of this core experience would become the small screen experience. The users would have access and interaction with the website without losing out the experience provided by the desktop version. Once we have a great website, it is time to take informed decisions. The budget constraints would prevent from developing cross-platform solutions. This is the time that battles should be chosen carefully including the target platform, user groups and platforms. This would lead to the optimization of website through progressive enhancement. The analytical tools can be used to look at the target demographics, and understand the market. This would facilitate in taking informed decisions. As Mark Boulton has said that progressive enhancement does not mean adherence to break points that would reflect the standard screen resolutions. It would address the actual anticipated end-user needs. By understanding the two to three prevailing platforms that the users would be using, the best website design would save the designers from developing several break points that would otherwise have very little usage.

Once the approach and the actual user needs would determine the platforms that the progressive enhancement would target, it would be time to equip themselves with tools. For everything in the front end, it is best to use tools that people would be comfortable in. Embracing this methodology would help in the creation of user-friendly responsive website.

When considering a user interface based responsive website, we need to think the transformation from the fixed width pages to a more fluid approach. Another designer, Laura Kalbag has defined the design systems as the helpful way to make various designs interoperable across multiple platforms. This would ensure consistency as it is being translated across target platforms. There would be lesser mockups and supplementary design documents that would describe the way the design would work. There are various tools like the style tiles and pattern libraries available for the web designers to formulate these design systems.

The grids are an important part of the front-end development of the responsive website. There are thousands of downloadable grid systems available to help. There are those like the Twitter Bootstrap that would even provide support to responsive HTML and CSS for different modules and components. The responsive grid built should be built based on the requirements of the website. This would ensure leanness of the code. However, for time saving options, it is best to avail those that are already available in the market.

Once the UI has been determined, it is now time to find a theme that would correspond to it. There are the readymade good themes that are available in the market. They come with presentation features that would ensure to engage the audience. It is however, important to make sure that the website is able to function on the devices as needed.

Responsive website design has been a paradigm shift in the world of web technology bringing about new digital change. As most web designers are acclimatized working with fixed width layouts, it is important that a manageable structure is devised that should be able to provide the solution within the constraints of the budget.

Author Bio:
Sometimes budget and time becomes the major drawbacks especially when we are trying to achieve best website design. Steven Brown thinks that employing the above methods would ensure a website that is cost effective and yet engaging.