- Flux 5 6 8 – Advanced Web Design Tools
- Flux 5 6 8 – Advanced Web Design Tool Software
- Flux 5 6 8 – Advanced Web Design Tool Free
Flux supports Responsive Design.Design your mobile-first website using code and drag & drop. Flux has first class support for Bootstrap and Skeleton. Design how it works. Framer is an all-in-one tool that helps teams design every part of the product experience. Start in Framer and get to a functional prototype faster than ever—no code required.
UI and UX are two distinct facets of web design, yet they work hand-in-hand. While UI focuses on your design interface and how a user interacts with it, UX emphasizes a users experience as they use your product or service.
UI tools give designers what they need to design accurate hi-fi wireframes, mockups, and prototypes and render minimally viable products. They represent the nuts and bolts of a design, communicating its functionality.
UX tools focus on the user and how they'll experience the content. These tools can help structure the information architecture, as well as how someone will flow through the experience. Since this is more conceptual, UX tools are about helping a designer paint the broader picture of how content and organization will affect experience.
We're going to take a look at some UI and UX tools that you may find handy for your design process. Some of these tools have features that work in both UX or UI, but for the sake of your own user experience, we've divided the list into two categories
UI/UX design tools
In this list, the first 11 tools mentioned are great for UI design, while 12-17 are great for UX. Let's dive into each one and learn how you can craft beautiful projects.
1. Sketch
If you have any UI design experience, you've heard of Sketch. And there are quite a few reasons why it's one of the design tools that's so revered.
Being able to make universal changes — whether it's through their library of symbols, layer styles, or text styles, or its smooth resizing and alignment features — saves designers time to deliver consistent prototypes. It takes out what's tedious and lets designers jump in and create. And with a multitude of third-party plugins that integrate without problems, there's no shortage of tools out there that can be used with Sketch.
Popular read: From Sketch to Webflow: how to turn mockups into live websites
2. InVision Studio
With a full suite of applications, InVision gives designers all of the UI design tools they need to create fully realized and functional prototypes with dynamic elements and animations.
Along with these easy-to-use UI design tools, they also make communication easy — with collaboration features that let developers share their work as they design it, receive feedback, and make documented changes at each step. Another useful aspect of InVision is the digital whiteboard that allows team members to get their ideas out there, interact, and get that all important sign-off before moving forward.
3. Axure
Axure functions in prototyping and keeping track of the workflow. It features a smooth interface to document as you go. High fidelity drives this app, resulting in prototypes full of details.
Axure offers many of the other features of popular prototyping and UI design tools. It allows for testing of functionality and puts everything together for an easy developer handoff. This, combined with an emphasis on communication, ensures that everyone on a project is kept up-to-date with progress and changes as they happen in real time, making Axure a solid choice for UI design.
4. Craft
Craft, a plugin from InVision, works right alongside what you might be doing in Photoshop or Sketch, with a sync function that updates what you're working on. Along with this time-saving feature, Craft offers everything you need for prototyping and collaboration. Changes in styling, edits, and other tweaks are updated across the board so that everyone is referring to and working from the same version of a project.
Craft sets itself apart from other UI design tools with its placeholder content. You get access to both Getty and iStock photos, letting you fill your layout with better visuals. And if there's data in your layout, you can use your own or bring it in from other sources. Not many UI design tools let you fill your mockups with more meaningful content. This special feature of Craft gives your mockups a more accurate representation of what a final design might look like.
5. Proto.io
In their own words, Proto.io says using their UI design software results in 'Prototypes that feel real.' And Proto.io delivers on this, giving you what you need to create, organize, integrate, and test accurate mockups. It also smooths out the collaboration process, fostering communication between team members through comments and video feedback, as well as integrating with some of the more well-known testing products, like Lookback, Userlytics, and Validately.
6. Adobe XD
It's hard to knock Adobe off of their status as royalty in design software — their kingdom of design products reigns in the creative cloud. Adobe XD offers vector-based tools for creating prototypes and mockups with an interface that's familiar to anyone who has used other Adobe products. This, along with real-time collaboration, makes it a go-to for many UI designers.
Adobe XD has many sophisticated tools for UI designers, but it is also stocked with what designers need to whip up interactions and other dynamic elements that can be integrated into prototypes or mockups. It's one of the rare design platforms that can combine different disciplines together, without anything lacking.
Popular read: From Adobe XD to Webflow: how to turn your prototypes into live websites
7. Marvel
Whether you've been a UI designer for awhile or if you're just stepping into the role, Marvel's design platform makes things easy. With the ability to create both low fidelity and hi-fi wireframes, interactive prototypes, and do user testing, it gives a UI designer everything they need — all wrapped into an intuitive interface. Marvel also has a feature called Handoff that gives developers all the HTML code and CSS styles they need to start building.
8. Figma
Figma lets designers build dynamic prototypes and mockups, test them for usability, and sync up all of the progress. Figma allows multiple people to work on or view a project at the same time, much like Google Docs — letting you see who has it open for real-time collaboration. You'll see who's working and what they're doing. It's also browser-based, making it accessible to everyone in an instant. And as an added bonus, it's free for individual use so you can check it out and get familiar with how it works
Popular read: From Figma to Webflow: turning your static designs into interactive websites
9. Framer X
Framer X has evolved from its early days as a code-only prototyping application. Today it offers a host of UI tools for building functional prototypes and testing for usability. Its ability to work with React makes it ideal for UI designers who like to stay on top of the newest web design innovations.
Framer X also offers a variety of plugins in their store, giving UI designers features such as UI kits for integrating social media channels like Snapchat and Twitter, players for embedding a variety of media, grids, and other useful components that can be easily integrated.
10. Origami Studio
With a Facebook pedigree (it was built by and for Facebook designers), Origami Studio packs in more complexity than something like InVison or Sketch — which are a bit easier for beginners in design. For those who need a more advanced prototyping tool as a part of their design system, Origami Studio has a lot to offer.
This platform has the tools you need to build complete prototypes that are powered by a sophisticated patch editor, giving designers the opportunity to integrate advanced functionality. Prototypes end up looking and working like a real app or webpage.
Origami Studio also integrates well with Sketch. If you're working in parallel with Sketch, it lets you brings in layers and copy and paste them directly without any hang-ups.
11. Webflow
Okay, the self promotion you've been waiting for — but stick with us here. You want to speed up the design process, right?
Webflow gives you the power to design without knowing HTML or CSS. With drag and drop functionality and an intuitive interface, Webflow gives you the creative freedom to build whatever you imagine. Using Webflow for building a prototype gives you an actual website, and generates accurate HTML and CSS code. This saves time. Instead of taking what's been drafted in a prototype and building a design from it, you already have what you need to give to a developer.
Even Ryan Morisson, lead designer at Webflow, decided to ditch prototyping tools and start designing and building straight in Webflow.
Build complex interactions and animations without even looking at code.
12. FlowMapp
When developing a user experience strategy, designers need to pay attention to structure, flow, and corresponding sitemaps, which are all at the foundation of UX design.
Where so many tools out there try to combine UI and UX together into one platform, FlowMapp dedicates itself to the discipline of UX design. Building user flows and constructing visual sitemaps are indispensable for UX, and these are the pillars of FlowMapp's UX design app.
13. Balsamiq
With a user friendly interface, Balsamiq makes it easy to create low fidelity wireframes. Even people with zero experience in wireframing could jump in and put together ones that look good. Balsamiq encompasses both UI and UX, but really stands out with its low fidelity wireframes. Balsamiq's nod to the physicality of whiteboarding makes the tool accessible to anyone, no matter their skill level.
14. VisualSitemaps
VisualSitemaps specializes in generating, you guessed it, visual sitemaps. It's nice to have a tool designed specifically for this. This tool has complete automation, the capacity to go through password-protected websites that haven't gone live yet, and the ability to import into Sketch. VisualSitemaps takes the process of creating visual sitemaps and supercharges it for UX designers, developers, and anyone else who needs to be involved with the process of creating them.
15. Treejack
The visual components of a design are important, but without great content, it's nothing but an empty vessel. Having quality content isn't enough — it needs to be arranged in a flow and structure that will maximize its accessibility. This is where information architecture comes in.
Treejack specializes in information architecture. It lets you test the tree structure of a website with real users. It then generates the results that show a user's path and navigation through the content, giving you valuable insights that you can use to edit and tweak the content organization.
16 Wireframe.cc
Djay pro 2 v2 0 10. Wireframes don't have to be complicated, and keeping them simple lets them communicate in a straightforward way how a design needs to be structured.
Wireframe.cc keeps their wireframing tools focused on minimalism. Intentionally limiting the color palette and using simple rectangular elements — along with an uncomplicated interface — lets UX designers construct a low fidelity wireframe in a snap. There's even an in-browser demo you can use to see how it works.
17. Optimal Workshop
As far as a UX design platform goes, Optimal Workshop has all you need to analyze usability, figure out information architecture, and test and evaluate a design.
Flux 5 6 8 – Advanced Web Design Tools
Optimal Workshop distinguishes itself in giving insights and providing in-depth data about users and how they interact with a design. This carefully curated UX platform offers tree testing with Treejack, which we just talked about, first-click testing with Chalkmark, online surveys, and Reframer for doing qualitative research. Having these bundled together makes for a package of tools that any UX designer would find useful.
UI and UX is always evolving
Along with the changes and trends of web design, UI and UX must accommodate these new practices and approaches. Which UI and UX tools have you found helpful in meeting the needs of clients and staying on the cusp? Please share what's helped you out in the comments below.
When putting together the main business portion of this site, I wrote an article that outlines the Six Phases of the Web Site Design & Development Process. As an integral part of my own company web site, the article is slanted to how I personally help clients through the process of creating their own site.
Here on the blog, however, I wanted to create a more generalized post. Same basic idea, however this version can be utilized by anyone, regardless of who they hire to design their web site. I hope this helps when considering building your own site!
The Web Site Design and Development Process
There are numerous steps in the web site design and development process. From gathering initial information, to the creation of your web site, and finally to maintenance to keep your web site up to date and current.
The exact process will vary slightly from designer to designer, but the basics are the same.
- Information Gathering
- Planning
- Design
- Development
- Testing and Delivery
- Maintenance
Phase One: Information Gathering
The first step in designing a successful web site is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when the look and feel of your site is created.
This first step is actually the most important one, as it involves a solid understanding of the company it is created for. It involves a good understanding of you – what your business goals and dreams are, and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals.
It is important that your web designer start off by asking a lot of questions to help them understand your business and your needs in a web site.
Certain things to consider are:
- Purpose
What is the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service, sell a product… ? - Goals
What do you hope to accomplish by building this web site? Two of the more common goals are either to make money or share information. - Target Audience
Is there a specific group of people that will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to picture the 'ideal' person you want to visit your web site. Consider their age, sex or interests – this will later help determine the best design style for your site. - Content
What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your site? Are they looking for specific information, a particular product or service, online ordering…?
Phase Two: Planning
Using the information gathered from phase one, it is time to put together a plan for your web site. This is the point where a site map is developed.
The site map is a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics, if applicable. This serves as a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. The end-user of the web site – aka your customer – must be kept in mind when designing your site. These are, after all, the people who will be learning about your service or buying your product. A good user interface creates an easy to navigate web site, and is the basis for this.
During the planning phase, your web designer will also help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Elements such as what CMS (content management system) such as WordPress to incorporate, will any contact forms be needed, etc. are discussed when planning your web site.
Phase Three: Design
Drawing from the information gathered up to this point, it's time to determine the look and feel of your site.
Target audience is one of the key factors taken into consideration. A site aimed at teenagers, for example, will look much different than one meant for a financial institution. As part of the design phase, it is also important to incorporate elements such as the company logo or colors to help strengthen the identity of your company on the web site.
Your web designer will create one or more prototype designs for your web site. This is typically a .jpg image of what the final design will look like. Often times you will be sent an email with the mock-ups for your web site, while other designers take it a step further by giving you access to a secure area of their web site meant for customers to view work in progress.
Either way, your designer should allow you to view your project throughout the design and development stages. The most important reason for this is that it gives you the opportunity to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.
In this phase, communication between both you and your designer is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. It is important that you work closely with your designer, exchanging ideas, until you arrive at the final design for your web site.
Then development can begin…
Phase Four: Development
The developmental stage is the point where the web site itself is created. At this time, your web designer will take all of the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the actual, functional site.
This is typically done by first developing the home page, followed by a 'shell' for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the web site. Shortcut bar 1 3. Once the shell has been created, your designer will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.
Elements such as the CMS (content management system) like WordPress, interactive contact forms, or ecommerce shopping carts are implemented and made functional during this phase, as well.
This entire time, your designer should continue to make your in-progress web site available to you for viewing, so that you can suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.
On the technical front, a successful web site requires an understanding of front-end web development. This involves writing valid HTML / CSS code that complies to current web standards, maximizing functionality, as well as accessibility for as large an audience as possible.
This is tested in the next phase…
Phase Five: Testing and Delivery
At this point, your web designer will attend to the final details and test your web site. They will test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, as well last testing for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that your web site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.
A good web designer is one who is well versed in current standards for web site design and development. The basic technologies currently used are HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). As part of testing, your designer should check to be sure that all of the code written for your web site validates. Valid code means that your site meets the current web development standards – this is helpful when checking for issues such as cross-browser compatibility as mentioned above.
Whether you've been a UI designer for awhile or if you're just stepping into the role, Marvel's design platform makes things easy. With the ability to create both low fidelity and hi-fi wireframes, interactive prototypes, and do user testing, it gives a UI designer everything they need — all wrapped into an intuitive interface. Marvel also has a feature called Handoff that gives developers all the HTML code and CSS styles they need to start building.
8. Figma
Figma lets designers build dynamic prototypes and mockups, test them for usability, and sync up all of the progress. Figma allows multiple people to work on or view a project at the same time, much like Google Docs — letting you see who has it open for real-time collaboration. You'll see who's working and what they're doing. It's also browser-based, making it accessible to everyone in an instant. And as an added bonus, it's free for individual use so you can check it out and get familiar with how it works
Popular read: From Figma to Webflow: turning your static designs into interactive websites
9. Framer X
Framer X has evolved from its early days as a code-only prototyping application. Today it offers a host of UI tools for building functional prototypes and testing for usability. Its ability to work with React makes it ideal for UI designers who like to stay on top of the newest web design innovations.
Framer X also offers a variety of plugins in their store, giving UI designers features such as UI kits for integrating social media channels like Snapchat and Twitter, players for embedding a variety of media, grids, and other useful components that can be easily integrated.
10. Origami Studio
With a Facebook pedigree (it was built by and for Facebook designers), Origami Studio packs in more complexity than something like InVison or Sketch — which are a bit easier for beginners in design. For those who need a more advanced prototyping tool as a part of their design system, Origami Studio has a lot to offer.
This platform has the tools you need to build complete prototypes that are powered by a sophisticated patch editor, giving designers the opportunity to integrate advanced functionality. Prototypes end up looking and working like a real app or webpage.
Origami Studio also integrates well with Sketch. If you're working in parallel with Sketch, it lets you brings in layers and copy and paste them directly without any hang-ups.
11. Webflow
Okay, the self promotion you've been waiting for — but stick with us here. You want to speed up the design process, right?
Webflow gives you the power to design without knowing HTML or CSS. With drag and drop functionality and an intuitive interface, Webflow gives you the creative freedom to build whatever you imagine. Using Webflow for building a prototype gives you an actual website, and generates accurate HTML and CSS code. This saves time. Instead of taking what's been drafted in a prototype and building a design from it, you already have what you need to give to a developer.
Even Ryan Morisson, lead designer at Webflow, decided to ditch prototyping tools and start designing and building straight in Webflow.
Build complex interactions and animations without even looking at code.
12. FlowMapp
When developing a user experience strategy, designers need to pay attention to structure, flow, and corresponding sitemaps, which are all at the foundation of UX design.
Where so many tools out there try to combine UI and UX together into one platform, FlowMapp dedicates itself to the discipline of UX design. Building user flows and constructing visual sitemaps are indispensable for UX, and these are the pillars of FlowMapp's UX design app.
13. Balsamiq
With a user friendly interface, Balsamiq makes it easy to create low fidelity wireframes. Even people with zero experience in wireframing could jump in and put together ones that look good. Balsamiq encompasses both UI and UX, but really stands out with its low fidelity wireframes. Balsamiq's nod to the physicality of whiteboarding makes the tool accessible to anyone, no matter their skill level.
14. VisualSitemaps
VisualSitemaps specializes in generating, you guessed it, visual sitemaps. It's nice to have a tool designed specifically for this. This tool has complete automation, the capacity to go through password-protected websites that haven't gone live yet, and the ability to import into Sketch. VisualSitemaps takes the process of creating visual sitemaps and supercharges it for UX designers, developers, and anyone else who needs to be involved with the process of creating them.
15. Treejack
The visual components of a design are important, but without great content, it's nothing but an empty vessel. Having quality content isn't enough — it needs to be arranged in a flow and structure that will maximize its accessibility. This is where information architecture comes in.
Treejack specializes in information architecture. It lets you test the tree structure of a website with real users. It then generates the results that show a user's path and navigation through the content, giving you valuable insights that you can use to edit and tweak the content organization.
16 Wireframe.cc
Djay pro 2 v2 0 10. Wireframes don't have to be complicated, and keeping them simple lets them communicate in a straightforward way how a design needs to be structured.
Wireframe.cc keeps their wireframing tools focused on minimalism. Intentionally limiting the color palette and using simple rectangular elements — along with an uncomplicated interface — lets UX designers construct a low fidelity wireframe in a snap. There's even an in-browser demo you can use to see how it works.
17. Optimal Workshop
As far as a UX design platform goes, Optimal Workshop has all you need to analyze usability, figure out information architecture, and test and evaluate a design.
Flux 5 6 8 – Advanced Web Design Tools
Optimal Workshop distinguishes itself in giving insights and providing in-depth data about users and how they interact with a design. This carefully curated UX platform offers tree testing with Treejack, which we just talked about, first-click testing with Chalkmark, online surveys, and Reframer for doing qualitative research. Having these bundled together makes for a package of tools that any UX designer would find useful.
UI and UX is always evolving
Along with the changes and trends of web design, UI and UX must accommodate these new practices and approaches. Which UI and UX tools have you found helpful in meeting the needs of clients and staying on the cusp? Please share what's helped you out in the comments below.
When putting together the main business portion of this site, I wrote an article that outlines the Six Phases of the Web Site Design & Development Process. As an integral part of my own company web site, the article is slanted to how I personally help clients through the process of creating their own site.
Here on the blog, however, I wanted to create a more generalized post. Same basic idea, however this version can be utilized by anyone, regardless of who they hire to design their web site. I hope this helps when considering building your own site!
The Web Site Design and Development Process
There are numerous steps in the web site design and development process. From gathering initial information, to the creation of your web site, and finally to maintenance to keep your web site up to date and current.
The exact process will vary slightly from designer to designer, but the basics are the same.
- Information Gathering
- Planning
- Design
- Development
- Testing and Delivery
- Maintenance
Phase One: Information Gathering
The first step in designing a successful web site is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when the look and feel of your site is created.
This first step is actually the most important one, as it involves a solid understanding of the company it is created for. It involves a good understanding of you – what your business goals and dreams are, and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals.
It is important that your web designer start off by asking a lot of questions to help them understand your business and your needs in a web site.
Certain things to consider are:
- Purpose
What is the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service, sell a product… ? - Goals
What do you hope to accomplish by building this web site? Two of the more common goals are either to make money or share information. - Target Audience
Is there a specific group of people that will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to picture the 'ideal' person you want to visit your web site. Consider their age, sex or interests – this will later help determine the best design style for your site. - Content
What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your site? Are they looking for specific information, a particular product or service, online ordering…?
Phase Two: Planning
Using the information gathered from phase one, it is time to put together a plan for your web site. This is the point where a site map is developed.
The site map is a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics, if applicable. This serves as a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. The end-user of the web site – aka your customer – must be kept in mind when designing your site. These are, after all, the people who will be learning about your service or buying your product. A good user interface creates an easy to navigate web site, and is the basis for this.
During the planning phase, your web designer will also help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Elements such as what CMS (content management system) such as WordPress to incorporate, will any contact forms be needed, etc. are discussed when planning your web site.
Phase Three: Design
Drawing from the information gathered up to this point, it's time to determine the look and feel of your site.
Target audience is one of the key factors taken into consideration. A site aimed at teenagers, for example, will look much different than one meant for a financial institution. As part of the design phase, it is also important to incorporate elements such as the company logo or colors to help strengthen the identity of your company on the web site.
Your web designer will create one or more prototype designs for your web site. This is typically a .jpg image of what the final design will look like. Often times you will be sent an email with the mock-ups for your web site, while other designers take it a step further by giving you access to a secure area of their web site meant for customers to view work in progress.
Either way, your designer should allow you to view your project throughout the design and development stages. The most important reason for this is that it gives you the opportunity to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.
In this phase, communication between both you and your designer is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. It is important that you work closely with your designer, exchanging ideas, until you arrive at the final design for your web site.
Then development can begin…
Phase Four: Development
The developmental stage is the point where the web site itself is created. At this time, your web designer will take all of the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the actual, functional site.
This is typically done by first developing the home page, followed by a 'shell' for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the web site. Shortcut bar 1 3. Once the shell has been created, your designer will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.
Elements such as the CMS (content management system) like WordPress, interactive contact forms, or ecommerce shopping carts are implemented and made functional during this phase, as well.
This entire time, your designer should continue to make your in-progress web site available to you for viewing, so that you can suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.
On the technical front, a successful web site requires an understanding of front-end web development. This involves writing valid HTML / CSS code that complies to current web standards, maximizing functionality, as well as accessibility for as large an audience as possible.
This is tested in the next phase…
Phase Five: Testing and Delivery
At this point, your web designer will attend to the final details and test your web site. They will test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, as well last testing for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that your web site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.
A good web designer is one who is well versed in current standards for web site design and development. The basic technologies currently used are HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). As part of testing, your designer should check to be sure that all of the code written for your web site validates. Valid code means that your site meets the current web development standards – this is helpful when checking for issues such as cross-browser compatibility as mentioned above.
Once you give your web designer final approval, it is time to deliver the site. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the web site files to your server. Some web designers offer domain name registration and web hosting services as well, or have recommendations as to where you can host your site. Once these accounts have been setup, and your web site uploaded to the server, the site should be put through one last run-through. This is just precautionary, to confirm that all files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site continues to be fully functional. Panda antivirus 10 9 7 build 655.
Other final details include plugin installation (for WordPress or other CMS driven web sites and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is the optimization of your web site with elements such as title, description and keyword tags which help your web site achieve higher rankings in the search engines. The previously mentioned code validation is something that plays a vital role in SEO, as well. There are many WordPress plugins available that further enhance the default WordPress functionality – many of which directly relate to improving your SEO, as well.
There are a lot of details involved in optimizing your web site for the search engines – enough to warrant its own post. This is a very important step, because even though you now have a web site, you need to make sure that people can find it!
Note to self… write post on SEO. 😉
This marks the official launch of your site, as it is now viewable to the public.
Phase Six: Maintenance
The development of your web site is not necessarily over, though. One way to bring repeat visitors to your site is to offer new content or products on a regular basis. Most web designers will be more than happy to continue working together with you, to update the information on your web site. Many designers offer maintenance packages at reduced rates, based on how often you anticipate making changes or additions to your web site.
If you prefer to be more hands on, and update your own content, there is something called a CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress can be implemented to your web site. This is something that would be decided upon during the Planning stage. With a CMS, your designer will utilize online software to develop a database driven site for you.
A web site driven by a CMS gives you the ability to edit the content areas of the web site yourself. You are given access to a back-end administrative area, where you can use an online text editor (similar to a mini version of Microsoft Word). You'll be able to edit existing content this way, or if you are feeling more adventurous, you can even add new pages and content yourself. The possibilities are endless!
It's really up to you as far as how comfortable you feel with updating your own web site. Some people prefer to have all the control so that they can make updates to their own web site the minute they decide to do so. Others prefer to hand off the web site entirely, as they have enough tasks on-hand that are more important for them to handle directly.
That's where the help of your web designer comes in, once again, as they can take over the web site maintenance for you – one less thing for you to do is always a good thing in these busy times!
Other maintenance type items include regular site backups, WordPress upgrades, additional plugin installation, etc.
Are You Ready to Design (or Re-Design) Your Web Site?
Your web designer should work closely with you on a very similar process to this one. A good working relationship with your designer, including an open line of communication, is important to ensure they are creating a successful web site that will help your business grow.
Flux 5 6 8 – Advanced Web Design Tool Software
I follow this same process myself – a process I've been using and refining over the last 15 years, through the web sites I've designed and developed for my own clients. If you are in the market of a new or updated web site, and like my design style, please don't hesitate to contact me – I would love to hear from you!
Flux 5 6 8 – Advanced Web Design Tool Free
Editor's Note: This post was last modified on March 11, 2014 to update some of my current methods that have changed since this article was originally posted.
