Guideline

You should only begin to think about the graphic design of the site once you have identified and gathered content, understood the scope and message of your Web site and defined the information architecture (specifically the navigation).

The graphic design or look and feel of a Web site is often the most discussed part of building a site as people base their choices (and more often criticisms) on their own personal tastes. Managing these comments and finding a design that everyone likes is perhaps one of the most challenging parts of building a Web site.

For this reason, it is important to create one or several design mock-ups of the home page and at least one sub-page of the Web site so that staff involved in the project as well as senior management can review and provide comments and eventual approval.

Mock-ups can be designed using graphic software such as Adobe Photoshop.

Choosing colours is also a challenging part of the design process - the VisiBone Web site allows you to experiment with colour combination.