As of late I have been designing purely with HTML and CSS. Normally I would fire up Photoshop and spend days on making a web design. But since the up rise of CSS3, Responsive web design and Adaptive web design It’s hard to justify this way of working. Below I list the cons and pro’s I’ve encountered.
Cons
- It might limit creativity. When working in Photoshop you don’t really think about how you would translate the pixels into HTML and CSS. That’s why most of the time I would make something and really had to push myself to get the same effect on a working website. Forcing me to develop my HTML and CSS skills. Working directly with HTML and CSS it’s not likely you will think up of something which is hard to create. This narrows the vision and might limit creativity.
- It’s hard for clients to comment on the things that matter. Because the website looks so real (it’s already functioning with hovers, menu’s, etc.) clients tend to comment on trivial things such as a missing disclaimer page. It’s harder for them to look at it as a design and give critique on used colors, photo’s, fonts and the positioning of elements.
Pro’s
- I’ts more realistic. What you see is what you get. Clients can look at it on their mobile and tablet or on different browsers. They can experience the design like their users will in the future. Compared to the old ways (creating a rendered Photoshop JPEG) there is less going back and forth between you and the client about the translation of the design into HTML and CSS.
- It’s faster. Because you don’t have to recreate the Photoshop design in HTML and CSS anymore you can skip a step in the process. When a client signs off the design you only have to add a few extra pages or (in my case) you will need to make the design fit for a Content Management System. This can be a real time-saver.
So far I’m really liking this process and I don’t think I will go back to Photoshop any time soon. How do you design? What are your methods? Share them in the comments!