A Layer-by-Layer Look at the Four Decisions Behind a Site

A Layer-by-Layer Look at the Four Decisions Behind a SiteA Layer-by-Layer Look at the Four Decisions Behind a Site

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Ali Sabir

pro

• Oct 19

Every finished site hides the four decisions that made it. Fieldwork, layer by layer.

The hardest was the second stage. If the page does not sell with black type on white, colour will not save it.

Which stage would you have stopped at, and what would you have changed?

Framer Framer Website Design Web Design

Ali Sabir

pro

• Oct 19

The hero is one typeface in two weights and one italic. The italic only earns its place on "Framer websites" because that is the only phrase a visitor came for. Everywhere else it would be decoration.

Rasaq Lawal

• Oct 19

Exactly. A strong structure and clear messaging should come before colour and visual effects.

Ali Sabir

pro

• 1d

Agreed, Rasaq. Colour is the last 10% of the work and somehow gets half the feedback. Do you test layouts in greyscale before adding colour too?

Rasaq Lawal

• 1d

Yes, greyscale first. It keeps the structure honest. You too?

Ali Sabir

pro

• 20h

Me too. Fieldwork stayed black on white until the copy and spacing worked, colour went in last. Do you keep the greyscale version around to check against later?

Timothy Exodus

pro

• 1d

If the page does not sell with black type on white, colour will not save it is a line every designer should hear early. Your second stage being the hardest makes perfect sense, it is where the site earns its structure.

Ali Sabir

pro

• 1d

Thanks Timothy. Stage two is where most of my rework goes: once the hierarchy holds in greyscale, colour takes an hour. Which stage do you end up redoing most?

Fred Moon

pro

• Oct 14

new work is live. quite proud of this one!

➝ https://drjoyce.co

Completed work

Framer Framer Website Development Web Design

Dim Pixidimworld

• Oct 14

I like this

Lauri Lännenmäki

pro

• Oct 14

Photography template Halation is now on @Framer https://www.framer.com/marketplace/templates/halation-photos/

Framer Templates Design Web Design

Zubair Akhter

• Oct 15

Nice one

Adrian Kuleszo

pro

• Oct 14

End of an era. After 3 good years on Framer, we moved

@designme to our own stack. Framer got us far, and I'd still recommend it for a lot of teams. But the more we grew, the more we needed control: over the code, structure and speed of testing and shipping new things. So, we rebuilt everything from scratch in Astro. It's the same setup we now build for our clients (which is exactly why we had to run our own site on it first). Really proud of the team and how fast we're moving now. DesignMe 2.0 is live ↓

Completed work