What is the meaning of PSD website design template?

Question

HTML

I am trying to understand whether it is really necessary to pre-draw the design in Photoshop (or in something else) when creating a site, when you can first, based on the technical specifications, design a layout and then immediately layout it.
That is, you can immediately create a template using HTML and CSS, focusing on the layout and terms of reference. Those elements that require the work of the artist will be done by the artist, but this is a much smaller amount of work than drawing a template in Photoshop.
Yes, the template is convenient for interacting with the customer, when he immediately sees how the end result will look like. But by getting rid of this intermediate step, you can reduce both the cost and development time (because less labor hours will be spent), which is clearly a big plus.
These are superficial reflections and I am interested to know the opinion of experienced specialists on this matter.

Answer 1

The meaning of the design layout is, in addition to the obvious: to design and predict everything in advance, but also to allow the team to agree as best as possible, to understand each other from the very beginning. This is especially important in a large team, which includes, in addition to a designer and layout designer, a programmer, a marketer, and a manager.
The same can be said about presentations, for example, on the development of a project, on new ideas that you want to implement. It is one thing to say everything in words, in fragmentary pictures and scattered figures, and it is quite another thing to make a high-quality presentation, from which everything becomes clear and obvious to everyone: what we will do and why.
When the whole team has the same picture in their head, everything is done much faster, the synergistic effect is much greater, when everyone starts to contribute to the same idea, and not to pull everyone in their own direction, not to drown in disputes.

Answer 2

If I make a site for myself, then I can not draw a layout, but approximately see and imagine this layout "in my head" and make it up right away, but here I know what I need, what I want and how I want. If you do it for someone, then make up a hundred times and redo the site longer than spending a couple of minutes in Photoshop. And if you need to submit 2-3 designs? what to make up 2-3 sites so that later the customer says that he doesn’t like it?

Answer 3

It's all about whether a team or a freelancer works on a one-time order.
In the case of a team, you can negotiate, in the case of a freelancer, it is much more difficult. The approach in which they immediately begin to make a site, making adjustments along the way, requires its own team, even if it is distributed.
And I wouldn't agree with you. What you call a template is called a prototype, it can be drawn in axure or assembled on a bootstrap, but it is something real, with minimal investment, that you can feel.

Answer 4

The question is philosophical. It's like salting during cooking, or at the end, let everyone salt on a plate ... But, in fact, there is a difference. If you need a regular site, then it is easier for customers to look at the picture even before the start of layout. They are so much more comfortable. In addition, this approach organically fits into the staging of work delivery, and after all, handing over work and receiving payment in stages is more pleasant for the contractor and calmer for the customer. If this is a simple site, there is no prototyping stage, so the delivery of the design, the act of certification of the stage of work is quite a working option.

Answer 5

If you find a designer who knows how to typeset, then yes, then it is not necessary. But in general, sketching out a design and / or several options for it in Photoshop fireworks is corny faster. If you make edits of this kind to the layout too often, then each new edit will eventually take longer and longer. Especially if you rush the designer.

Answer 6

If one person is able to combine both a layout designer and a high-level designer. Indeed, you can create bypassing the layout. It is also known that "they don't show half the work to a fool", so an impatient client will not always be able to wait for the full completion of the project, for this you need a site design layout.

Answer 7

Try to work without a layout and you will understand what the trick is. :) I will say in advance that the main trouble here is in the edits, which are easier to make to the layout than to the layout and layout after. At the design stage, the prototype can be redone, and at the feedback stage, everything can be completely redone from scratch - we live in a very imperfect world. :) Cooper wrote about interfaces about things that rarely work in terms of live examples. :) So this is what I'm talking about - you can, of course, and even commendably try to save time for designers. Sometimes when this is a permanent team, it works, but at most in small things and not in any way on the scale of a template that goes to someone for approval. And designers, however, have long learned to save themselves time and either do prototyping, the idea and need of which they skillfully pushed through to the customer, or they have a set of stubs for graphic editors, which are easy to transform into something new and add the necessary fancy stuff. And developers usually have enough headaches of their own and either very naive beginners or desperate enthusiasts are trying to save the whole world. :)