Need some advice on steps in designing a website

I'm getting frustrated trying to settle on a look and feel of my website. I need some direction on how to build my skills up without going to school. Does anyone have a good website they can point to for learning good design theory, such as layout and color theory? Also, maybe a site on how to create nice graphics?

I have Macromedia MX 2004 suite, which is pretty powerful and plenty for what I'm wanting to do right now.

Any other suggestions for a budding web designer are welcome!

Thanks!

I generally get a useful navigation together, and split the business into its most important sections. Generally making it easy to navigate for the customer is one of the most important things to consider.

If you look at this windows and double glazing site for example:http://www.finestralwindows.co.uk/

You will see the most important information comes first - Logo, Numbers, Navigation and two tabs to prompt the customer to get a quote. As well as a small catchy intro. I generally make sure all my website have access to the most important pages of the website from the homepage. Perhaps adding an offer on and things like that. It all depends on who you are designing for. generally i design for professional companies. If you are designing for someone like a photographer or artist, then you would probably need to be boasting with ideas.

If you let me know more information about what it is for, and i could help you get a good basis together. Plus my company is currently creating a free template website which might be handy for you to experiment with.

Hope this helps
Claire

I would recommend learning general principals of design that apply to anything (tea cups, billboards, business cards, websites, etc). There are several terms you may want to start looking up:

Color
Line
Rhythm
Balance
Hierarchy (claireo is discussing content hierarchy on the web)
Typography
Grid

Whole books and websites have been written about each of those topics, but there are two that I always recommend for my students.

Graphic Design: The New Basics and Basic Visual Concepts And Principles For Artists, Architects And Designers

Good luck

You can try learning from the good free templates available on internet.. They are free to download and you can learn from the codes, how they putted together the codes (html/css), images, etc.
The one good site for free template:
http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/

To tell you the truth, that's how I started. I downloaded free templates (The one that appealed to me) and looked through the source, played around with the HTML, CSS and Images. That got my creative juices flowing

Now, before I start creating a site template, I think what it would be for. If it's a demo or a script that I'm making for someone, it is a simple greyscale site with simple CSS (unless the site requires a lot of things, then the CSS isn't so simple. By "simple" I mean not-lengthy).

The steps I go through in creating a site.

1. Design - Often times the most time consuming and difficult for me. I usually browse a lot of design galleries showcasing excellent websites such as [url="http://www.designshack.co.uk"]Designshack[/url] or [url="http://www.cssremix.com]CSS Remix[/url]. I also take into account things such as color schemes which I browse using Adobe Air - Kuler web app.

2. Index Page - After I have developed a general look of my site in photoshop, I create an index page. A basic page that has many of the pieces that I would like - just not formatted yet.

3. CSS - I develop the rest of the site and style it

4. Final Touches - finishing touches to the site.

These are the general steps I go through in creating a website.

Hey!
me, too!