Mapping the Modern Web Design Process

Course details

Once you eliminate the trends and terminology, web design is about one thing and one thing only: getting your message across to an online audience. This course offers a 10,000-foot view of the web design process, to help ensure you never lose sight of your users. Morten Rand-Hendriksen takes you on a journey from initial consultation and discovery through content strategy and UX considerations, to development, content creation, design, testing, and launch. By the end, you'll understand the different players and phases and how they fit together in a web design approach focused on meaningful communication and a great user experience.

Learning objectives
Understanding what your users care about
Creating user personas
Creating content priority hierarchies
Testing wireframes and interaction patterns
Establishing a three-track build process
Incorporating accessibility principles
Using content blocks
Testing and revising your web design
Optimizing for social media and SEO
Launching your web design
Getting feedback from users

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Create great informational user experiences
02 - What is this course about and who is it for

1. Web Design as a Process

03 - What do we mean when we say web design
04 - Creating informational user experiences
05 - A guide to the web design process

2. Some Perspective

06 - The only thing that matters
07 - All the things the end user does not care about
08 - Asking what the web can do for you

3. Preprocess

09 - Roles and responsibilities
10 - Establishing baseline documentation
11 - Version control

4. The Content Strategy Phase

12 - Content strategy
13 - Establishing user personas
14 - Content auditing
15 - Content modeling
16 - Creating content priority hierarchies
17 - Information architecture
18 - Wireframing

5. Prebuild Testing

19 - Taking it to the streets
20 - Card sorting exercise
21 - Testing wireframes and interaction patterns

6. The Build Phase

22 - Establishing a three-track build process
23 - Creating a living style guide
24 - Core content model development
25 - Baseline development priorities
26 - Creating a content only build for accessibility
27 - Responsive web design as a process
28 - Designing in the browser
29 - Using content blocks
30 - Interactive elements and progressive enhancement
31 - Art direction - Responsive images and graphics

7. The Test and Revision Phase

32 - Taking it to the streets again
33 - Accessibility testing
34 - Break and edge case testing
35 - End user testing

8. The Optimization Phase

36 - Optimization priorities
37 - Optimizing for user experience
38 - Optimizing for social media sharing
39 - Optimizing for SEO
40 - Integrating analytics

9. Launch and Reset

41 - Pre-launch checklist
42 - Soft and hard launch
43 - Create a feedback loop for issues and resolutions
44 - Post-launch user testing
45 - The web evolves and so should your site

Conclusion

46 - Continuing your learning path