As far as planning goes, I wanted to develop a solid brand before designing the site, as in the actual profession of UX – branding is key to creating a solid product. So before anything, I created a brand kit of assets that I would be using to create the site for my fake company, ZASHI. A brand kit essentially is the parameters for what designers should use stylistically and not only does this make it easier to design, but it helps the designer stay in the boundaries of the brand — and makes the process less stressful by limiting options. These kits will contain everything on the site, all the iconic fonts, logos, icons, colors, pictures, and even button shapes. Here is the kit I created for ZASHI:
This lays out everything that I will be using for the site and makes it easier to design, and also helps us avoid confusing or contrasting visual language and over-cluttering. (For example in my first site I used a bunch of different fonts with no size variation which made the style confusing and overwhelming for users)
Once I had the kit created, the fun part started – the physical design of the site. I created the pages procedurally, one by one. Before making anything functional, I had to be sure it was all aligned, user-friendly and looked aesthetically pleasing. The design was the longest step but the most enjoyable for me. The final step was coding buttons to make a wireframe (a non-published but working model of a site or app, to show users its functionality). These are often drafts and allow users to critique the interface, and give designers a way to refine the product before launch.
