Web design has never just been an easy to crack process, and has traditionally involved quite a few different pieces of software. For a typical website, I may use the following software:
- Adobe Photoshop – to design the visual look and feel of the site
- Adobe Dreamweaver or NotePad++ – to code the initial templates for the pages
- CMS (usually either WordPress or ExpressionEngine) – to build the website upon and give clients the ability to manage the site themselves
- FileZille FTP – to upload website files and images to the web server
This is just for the design and development parts of the process. Before we can even get started with these tools, we first have to set up website hosting and register a domain name, which requires connecting with other websites and software.
Once a site is completed and launched, even more software comes into play, including analytics that will report on the traffic and performance of the site and whatever software your business will use to actually bill for all the work you have done.
As you can see, it is pretty easy to become overwhelmed with the variety of software tools needed to design, deploy, and manage even the simplest website. This is why, if you are looking for an alternative to this process, you should be looking for a complete business tool and not just a web design platform.
Doing More With Less (Software)
The problem with the typical web design process outlined above is that so many disparate pieces of software are required because each one of those tools does only one specific thing. Photoshop is great for design, but it will not allow you to write code or develop your web pages. Dreamweaver has powerful web development features, but it lacks the visual design components found in Photoshop. For all of these software options, you will find the same scenario – they do one or two things really well, but require other software to be used to complete the full process.
While this scenario is common, it can also be very complicated at times because of the quantity of tools at play. A platform that includes many or all of these features, allowing you to effectively eliminate other software from your process, allows you to actually do more while using less software. This is where a solution like the cloud-based web design platform, Webydo, can really be much more than web design software – it can be a tool upon which you can run your design business.
All Under One Roof
Created “by designers, for designers”, Webydo starts as a powerful visual design platform with features that you would find in programs like Adobe Photoshop or InDesign. This platform is so much more than a replacement for those programs, however, because its functionality does not stop there. The websites that are designed in Webydo can then be published as working webpages without the need to hand-code anything. Powerful web features like responsive design, parallax scrolling animation, and even Ecommerce functionality can all be added using this same platform – all without the need to write any code. So the design and development aspects of the project are covered, but the platform does not stop there!
- CMS – Webydo includes CMS-editing features that will allow your clients to manage their own sites. There is even a White Label option that you can use to get your brand in front of your clients and further reinforce that relationship. Ultimately, this CMS feature replaces the need to have a separate content management system like WordPress used in your process, because the same platform used to design and develop the site can also be used as the CMS.
- Domain Names, Web Hosting, and FTP – you can register domain names and set up hosting all from within the Webydo interface and you can upload your files right through the system too!
- Analytics – once a website is live, Webydo will report on real-time statistics about traffic to the website and much more.
- Backups – the “Revision History” feature of Webydo allows you to review older versions of your webpages and restore those versions if you have made a mistake on the current one, eliminating the need to call a hosting provider to try to restore files from some kind of backup file that they may maintain.
- Client Billing – yes, you can even establish client billing directly from Webydo, making it easier to get paid for your hard work (after all, that is one of the main reasons we do this, right?)
The Freedom of One Platform
Not only does the ability to use one platform to replace all those aforementioned software solutions greatly simplify the process of web design, but it gives you so much flexibility and freedom. Because Webydo is accessible from a web browser, you can login and do work from anywhere that you have an Internet connection.
You no longer need to wait until you are in front of a computer that has your specific design software installed or has your billing software configured – you can login from anywhere and do what needs to be done.
Give It a Try
There will always be a need for different software tools. For instance, if you need to do photo retouching, Adobe Photoshop is still an excellent choice for that work, even if you have replaced it for your web design needs. By combining certain tasks under one roof, however, you can improve your overall process and replace complexity with a more unified and enjoyable web design experience.
You can sign up for a free trial of Webydo to experiment with the platform for yourself and see how it could become the exact tool you need to take your web design business to the next level.
Why Your Web Design Platform Really Needs To Be a Business Tool
