Photoshop Practical - Website Layout Design

eduCBA brings you an amazing course on Website Layout using Photoshop where you will be learning how to create website layout using Photoshop and understand it’s Multi-purpose.

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 2h | 16 Videos | 81186 Views |   Expert

Website Layout Design

Today, most people who set out to make a website often get right into coding. But they skip the first and often most crucial steps in web design: forming a website layout examples. When you brainstorm a brief for a new website, deciding and forming the layout should be first on your agenda.

A website’s layout can either make or break it. Poor website layout can, for instance, lead to poor navigation and impact your search engine page results. It could also lead to problems in expanding or adding more features to your website. A poorly designed website can also turn off lots of visitors and potential clients. If they cannot find the information or product/service they want on your site, why would they stay?

At the same time, a good layout can be the foundation for good website design. It ensures that every page is where it is, and all the pages are well connected with each other. Within each page, all the information is arranged for easy readability. Visitors are able to get what they want within a few clicks and can navigate around the site easily through the well-placed links. A good website layout could significantly increase your site’s conversion rates, without changing anything else.

Using Photoshop to Website Layout Design

Adobe Photoshop has been a mainstay in the design world for decades and has even become a part of today’s global culture and vernacular. While it is the industry standard for raster graphics editing, it is also a popular tool for designing websites, particularly layouts.

Although lots of designers have talked about switching to working within browsers or using other software, Photoshop remains an oft-used tool by many. Here are some reasons why:

PSDs remain an industry standard

A web designer’s choice of design software is heavily dependent on what their clients and developers want, and many of them want PSDs. This means that, no matter what your personal opinion may be of Adobe’s software, you may still end up using Photoshop more often than not.

Adobe Fireworks was quite a popular program a few years ago, with some developers asking for layered PNGs and PSDs. But Adobe has since discontinued developing the program and the industry has lapsed back to Photoshop. Most front-end developers in the industry are well-aware of how to use Photoshop and extract graphics from PSD files. It’s probably the first thing they learned and they have years of practice with it. There are dozens of third-party plugins and tools to make this even easier to do. If you plan on freelancing a lot, you definitely to invest in designing a website layout using Photoshop training.

Adobe has also launched its Adobe Edge Reflow app, which lets you make PSDs responsive, which is a downright necessity these days. You can use the app to directly design your website or import your PSD files and turn them responsive with the app. But Adobe has been encouraging the use of Photoshop rather than entirely using the app. And it is a great solution to meeting today’s need for responsive websites. You can simply import your PSD, scale and rearrange some elements, and produce alternative design screens.

Lots of designers with HTML or CSS experience jump directly into designing in the browser, however, and skip the website layout examples using Photoshop training. While it may seem like an advantage, the truth is that it can limit your creativity because your focus is not on being creative, but on making it work on the code. It also ends up making the website development process slower, because you end spending a lot more time fixing things that you would have if you entered the coding process with a good layout in mind.

Developing a website layout examples using Photoshop can help you visualize the concept of your website, and know exactly what to code in the best and lightest way possible. As a website designer, your focus has to be on developing your design skills, techniques and styles. If you get them right, you can design beautiful website irrespective of software.

Website Layout Design Course Overview

Now that you know how important website layout is for the site development and improvement process, and the importance of Photoshop in getting the right website layout design, let’s look at what the course covers.

Section 1: Overview of Website Layout

The first section introduces you to the concept of website layout and the use of design Photoshop. It covers everything that a new website designer should know and be able to do before beginning a new project, and what to pay attention to during the process.

• Introduction to Website Layout in Photoshop
• Placing a Logo
• Body Content

Section 2: Understanding about Layout

Here, we cover the key principles of website layout, including navigation and general workflow issues that bring you closer to creating professional-grade website layouts design. Website navigation is the foundation of your entire project, and together with content make up the two major reasons why visitors would stay on your site or convert to customers.

• Navigation and Content
• Starting the Layout
• New Logo

Section 3: Learning about Navigation

In this section, we cover navigation in a lot more detail, given how important it is for your site. We learn how to come up with an information architecture that forms the backbone of the usability of a website.

• A couple of more logos
• Navigation
• Continuation of Navigation

Section 4: Making of Banner & Body Section

When it comes to banners, clarity and simplicity are paramount. This section focuses on how to design a banner that is informative yet does not intrude on the visitor’s experience on your website. We also cover the related field of body section design, and how to create a well-structured body that is easy to read and understand for the viewer.

• How to make a banner
• Continuation of how to make a banner
• How to make body section

Section 5: Creating Baskets & Footer

In the next section, we look at two elements found at the extreme top and bottom of a page: the basket and the footer. Both are crucial to tying up the visual language and theme of your website. We look at how to design a basket that complements the online experience of a customer, and how to create a footer that provides all the links to pages that a visitors would like to go to.

• How to make baskets in photoshop
• Continuation of making baskets
• Writing text
• How to make footer for your website

Requirements/Pre-Requisites to this course

Before you enroll in this course for website layout using Photoshop training, here are some of the pre-requisites that you have to meet:

1. You must have basic working knowledge of computers and how to operate them
2. You need to have a creative flair and the ability to visualize information structures
3. You must have a passion to learn to design and developing great designs on Photoshop

Target Audience for This Website Layout Design Training

This course on website layout design using Photoshop training is meant for:

1. Students looking to learn how to use Photoshop
2. Web design or development professionals looking to expand their knowledge of Photoshop and design better laid out sites
3. Anyone with an interest and passion to learn website design

Website Layout Design FAQs

• Is this course for me?

As long as you are interested and ready to give your time and effort to learn Photoshop, this course should be suited for you. The course is focused on using Photoshop to create a good website layout design, but it is also suited for those interested in exploring the software or in learning the key elements and steps in the good website layout design. Both are key skills and knowledge that can be expanded or applied in various other ways.

• Is there a particular order to follow?

Each section has been designed to follow one after another while remaining largely self-contained. So if you want to learn just about navigation, or banner and body section layouts, you can view the necessary sections alone. However, it is highly recommended that you go through all the sections. There are just five in total, and together they cover the most crucial elements of website layout design, which can be hugely beneficial when you start building any website.

• Where would I apply this?

The website layout design elements would be applied any time you make a website and would give you the knowledge needed to tackle new design projects. A good start is half the journey, and the knowledge from this website layout course gives you exactly that. The Photoshop skills you gain from this course also have a wide scope of use.

Website Layout Course Testimonials

Joyce J:

I was planning to make my own website for a long time, but had no clue how to start off. Although I knew a bit of coding, I wasn’t sure what to code, really. This website layout course gave me everything I need to lay out a website from scratch and to plan my approach. It made the coding process so much easier and faster, too!

Aparna B:

I have some experience in Photoshop, but my skill level was still really low and I wanted to explore the abilities of this software in website design, since my firm was taking on a lot of web design projects of late. The website layout course was relatively short, but I learned enough to tap into Photoshop like never before and grab a better spot in my firm’s team. I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress in my career with this simple little course.

Benjamin S:

My first website project was an utter disaster! I fumbled around quite a lot and ended up with a completely unfunctional site. Every time I fixed a problem in the code, ten more would crop up.  I wasn’t sure what happened, so I decided to start from scratch and enroll myself in this course. By the end of it, I was pretty clear what my mistakes were. Now, I’ve not only made my first website but am also retrofitting the other project to make it work. This was my first big step in the right direction of web design.

Career Benefits of This Website Layout Training

With this website layout design course, you will be able to create a website that adheres to the basic principles of web design, which are crucial to its success. Here are some of these principles:

• A call to action: every site must have a clear call to action, a way for visitors to register, sign up, purchase or enquire. This call to action has to stand out from the other navigation elements and should be visible in every page.
• Simplicity: a website has to be designed in the simplest way possible to keep users engaged and interested, which makes it easier to convert them into customers.
• Easy navigation: it should be easy for a visitor to find their way around their site and go back to where they entered the website, whenever they want.
• Content: content is what makes the bulk of your site, and what will grip visitors the most. A lot of content on your property, service or product may not actually be that important for the user, but is crucial for search engine optimization. Relevant content is the cheapest and often the best way to get traffic to your site.
• Credibility: clean, simple and clear website design adds significant credibility to the brand you are trying to create. This is especially important when creating an e-commerce site or a website that requires users to provide their personal details.

As a designer, this course on website layout design using Photoshop training helps you learn new skills and gain knowledge on software and website design that is vital for your growth in the industry. It will not only strengthen your resume but also your portfolio. Here are some of the career benefits you could gain from this course:

You stand out

The web designers’ market is full of people, with a lot of talented folks breaking into the industry thanks to the low barriers of entry and availability of online training courses. This website layout design course gives you an edge over the stiff competition. As a creative director or hiring manager, if you had candidates with the same job experience and skill set, would you go for the candidate who has this course as an addition to their resume? In this field, knowing an extra application or skill to use an existing application can be a huge plus point.

Make new opportunities

As a web designer, you need to constantly improve your skills and knowledge to create new opportunities for yourself. If you have the time and effort to give for this course, it can open up a lot of new doors for you and help you tap into opportunities that were locked away before this.