Building our new website

Aloha Everyone- I am building our new website for our inn in Hawaii. I would really appreciate help as I go along and I would be grateful for feedback about the design. The hero pic at the top will be replaced (Ithink/hope) with a slider.
I am not doing very well with organizing my names, so any tips on that would be great.

One of biggest things that has come up is how to prepare the assets in Photoshop. I have the RAW pics, so I can work with them to find a happy medium, but any suggestions on how to size them for a responsive site would really be appreciated.
I did post this in GENERAL but I think I definitely NEED HELP.

I hope the overall structure is clear enough to see where I am headed. Total pages will be about 20. I haven’t added much functionality and no additional pages yet. Fingers are crossed.
I hope this link works

Webflow - kalaekilohana

Thanks
Kenny

Do you have a wireframe of your site?

I don’t know- which means probably not. :blush:

i would suggest creating a wireframe first before jumping into webflow and designing from a blank canvas. =)

Building a website is like building a house. You need to draw the blueprints first before putting up the walls and decoration.

Also, if you want a REALLY good website, start writing a story on MS Word or Google Doc. Write things about:

  • what makes your Inn different than the competition
  • why should the user care about this place?
  • why do YOU care so much about this place?
  • what is the HEART of the story behind this inn?

Focus on the story FIRST, before selling the product/service.

From there you can make a wireframe to draw out what goes where on the page. After that, you can make a great site on Webflow. =)

good luck!

Hi Pixelgeek- I am very interested in creating a wireframe. How does one do that? I would have done that had the tutorials pointed me in that direction. I have much of it in my head,

We have an existing website now that has served us well. still gets compliments from our guests, and is fully functional, but is not responsive, lacks animation, and is just desperately in need of replacement. I actually already have tons of story that I can pull out and we have a great bunch of image assets I can work with. So if creating a wireframe of what is in my head would help me work in Webflow, I’m all ears.

Pens and paper! Not joking. Tools also exist, like Balsamiq… also lots of tools for iphones and ipads. Some people use Keynote or powerpoint too. But really the goal is to know where you go, to drafts, etc, so pens and paper are a great start. Then you can take pics of them, continue on computer, etc.

See what’s an image search for wireframe brings : https://www.google.fr/search?q=wireframe+website&espv=2&biw=1311&bih=1188&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=QvEaVMyHMYLJigL3-IDIDg&ved=0CCAQsAQ

here is my process to redesigning SDCC for fun:

Hey that’s great to hear. I already have the sitemap and a visual layout for the large size on paper. Thank you very much for the image link. I can see a wireframe must be the tool designers use to begin. Sorry I didn’t catch on to the term right away. I didn’t see the need to sketch out the different sizes if WEBFLOW is doing so much of that work as I design, but I certainly could. My layout for the first page is very similar to what I have on paper.

Aloha PixelGeek,
Thanks for a very informative read. I quite enjoyed it. OF course, the final page was well done. I don’t know anything about marketing comics or comic-con, but your design was compelling enough that I watched the whole thing until I saw it repeat.

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ALOHA!

thanks for reading. I hope you understood the main takeaway of the article. “Tell a story first, don’t sell the product.”

Good luck! =D

I do understand the importance of telling our story. We have been telling our story for 10 years in one way or another. The picture choice is all about telling that story. Can you see stars where you live? :smile: Not everyone can and part of our story is where we are located. There is more to the story of course and I will keep your words in my head as I move along.

Have you thought about hiring an actual designer?

Absolutely. Actually, I thought it would be great to hire someone who could help me with design and tutor me on how to use webflow.

Hi Kenny,

I can help you out with both if you would like.

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