Discovering the Best way for How to Design a Website
Are you the type of person that has always dreamed about how to design a website, but has never done it? Maybe you think it is too difficult, but with this tutorial, you will be able to get your design up in no time. Once you get started, you will find it easier than you may think. This tutorial will guide you through the entire process for how to design a website from beginning to end. Let’s get started:
The Step-by-Step Process for How to Design a Website
Step 1: Downloading the 960-grid system template:
For designing a dynamic website, first download the 960-grid system Photoshop template. It is available on their official website. Download and unzip the zip file to get the PSD template. You will have two different templates within the zip file. One is designed with twelve columns and another with sixteen columns.
Step 2: Defining the structure: Before you open the PSD grid template you need to, first, define the structure of your website.
Step 3: After defining the website structure, you are ready to move forward. Start by opening the 16_col.psd template and go to image canvas size. You want to fix the canvas size to 1200px for width and 1700px for height. This is the optimal size for most computers and browsers to view. Then, set the color of the background using the color code.
Step 4: In this step, you will pick the rectangle tool, draw a rectangle in the canvas, and fill it up with another color.
Step 5: Now you have to create a layer, which will be above the rectangle you just created. You can set the layer mode to overlay. Then, click on the rectangle layer while pressing the ctrl button and select the area. Select a soft brush of 600px and change the color to white. Finally, you can click several times over the area to create a nice light effect.
Step 6: It is time to create another layer, but this time select the dark grey color.
Step 7: With this tool, you want to draw a 500px box underneath the top rectangle. This should be 575px tall and use linear gradient overlay.
Step 8: Now, repeat step five with this new rectangle and move onto step 9 of the how to design a website tutorial.
Step 9: Next, create a new layer by drawing a 400px high rectangle. We will use this for the header of the site. Fill it up with a beautiful gradient.
Step 10: To apply the effect of drop shadow, add a line about 1px in sized at the bottom of the header. Then, create another layer above that one, and another white line underneath the first line.
Step 11: Once again, create a layer by drawing a 50px rectangle on the top of the canvas. This is done for the sites navigation. A drop shadow can be used here, as well.
Step 12: For navigating, you have to use the rectangle tool, which is round. Set the radius to 5px and draw a rectangle with the affects you prefer. Then, selecting the rectangle go to select-modify-contract and simply enter 1px. This will help to set up the navigation part of how to design a website.
Step 13: It is time to create a search box. You can create this part of the how to design a website tutorial either on the right, left, or middle of the page. It is up to what you like. Use the stripe you created in step 4, draw a rectangle with the rounded rectangle tool, and apply the style you prefer.
Step 14: If you want to create a sign up button, you can do the exact same thing as you did in step 13, but cut the width in half.
Step 15: Add your logo and a tagline to the header you created earlier in the how to design a website tutorial. This will give you an idea of how others will see your website.
Step 16: Next, you want to create another layer called “top_bar” and move all the different layouts into it including the sign up button, tagline, and search box. Also, create another layer and move the header graphics into it.
Step 17: You can add a light effect on the header, if you think it looks a bit too plain. Select the header box and create a layer, while using the overlay mode. From here, just refer back to step 5 in the how to design a website tutorial to finish the step.
Step 18: Next, you need to learn how to create the reflection for the header image. Take any two images for this, place the smaller one behind the bigger one, copy both the layers, and fill both images using the free transform tool. Both images will have shifted down a few pixels after. Selecting from the outside of the bottom part to the middle of the image, flipped first, go to select-modify and feather. Then, type 35px, and press the delete key several times to finish this image. Do the same for the next image.
Step 19: Use the rounded rectangle tool to create a shape and set the height to 70px. You can set the radius to whatever you desire. Choose the direct selecting tool and click on the shape path. Then, by pressing the shift key, click on a vertical point and drag it down until it reaches the same level as the horizontal axis.
Step 20: Pick the line tool and make sure it is set to 1px.
Step 21: By holding the shift key draw a separator.
Step 22: give a description to each tab.
Step 23: If you want to make the active tab a bit more obvious, you can give is a white faded background.
Step 24: If you want to add shadow, draw a dark gray rectangle behind the tab. In addition, you can add a vector mask from the bottom of the layer palate.
Step 25: It is time to design your first tab’s content. For this, we will need a heading, text, and featured image.
Step 26: Organize your palette by creating one more layer folder.
Step 27: Then, draw a dark rectangle of about 400px for the footer.
Step 28: Again, follow step 5 from the how to design a website and create a light effect.
Step 29: Next, copy the top part of the navigation after creating the bottom section for this navigation to fit into.
Step 30: Once you have done all of this you can take a tour of the site template and preview it.
Conclusion: How to Design a Website
This should help you work with this specific template and get a website up and running. You can do many things with the design of a website and there are many other features you can play around with that are included with this template. It is not hard to learn how to design a website when you have a step-by-step guide to help.
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