Web design, whether starting from scratch or redesigning, is all about planning and organisation. Think long-term but focus on short-term – and never lose sight of your customer.
After a tip-off from James Golan (Web facilitator in Sydney Institute of TAFE), I asked for an inter-library loan of “Web Re-design 2.0 – Workflow that works“, and after skimming through it yesterday I’ll certainly be asking if we can get a permanent copy in our library!
This is not a technical book about HTML or other specific technologies, but rather is about the process of designing a website for a client: “Call it a plan, call it a roadmap, call it a guide — we call it Workflow That Works, because that’s what it is.”
The book has excellent tips, visual case studies of site re-designs over time, as well as a very detailed walk-through of the complete process – from discovery through to launch and beyond.
More importantly, the accompanying website for Web Re-Design has lots of tools that you can use right now in your projects! Like an initial Client Survey, a spreadsheet to help you budget your project, and a pre-written form for additional charges that you might need to use (and these resources are just from one chapter!)
We’ve included tools in this book – tools you can use today, as in right now, as in on your current project. We offer checklists, surveys, worksheets, and forms to help you keep your project on track from initial planning through launch and beyond. (pg 3)
It seems like the authors, Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler have edited all their experience, tools and resources from their own careers as Web Professionals into one readible and usable format! If you’re thinking of taking on a web design project, I’d certainly recommend checking this book out.
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[...] The project “scaffolding” would be provided through the facilitators, but using the excellent resources created by current professionals, such as the excellent book Web ReDesign 2.0 – Workflow that works and others. In our class we might follow the workflow outlined in the book begininning with Phase 1: Define the Project, and I’d have an expectation that we’d be committed to completing each Phase as we go and not just jumping straight into the “fun” bits :) [...]