Photoshop is one of the best designing apps in the world. It is used to design everything from architecture to prototypes and everything in between. And the files Photoshop files are stored in are called PSD, which stands for Photoshop Document. One of the areas where Photoshop especially shines is web design. You can create the most intricate, detailed, and unique web designs by using Photoshop, and talented developers and agencies can use those designs to craft amazing websites that put you and your business on the map. So, how do they do it? How are you converting PSD to WordPress websites successfully? We’ll give you a few crucial tips that will ensure your success in this article.
1. Make Sure You Translate Design Concepts into Web Design Concepts
Source: hirewpgeeks.com
The concepts you use in design, in general, are very different from the concepts you use in web design, and if you don’t realize this and amend your approach during the conversion, you’ll experience a lot of turbulence during the process.
Generally, there are some particular points that you need to pay attention to:
a. Web design is far more compartmentalized than general design tasks: When you design for the web, you usually have to reuse elements all over your web pages, and so, they need to be standardized and reusable. In general design, you try to make each element as unique as possible, which wouldn’t work with web design.
b. Web design deals with far more limited resources: when you are designing a poster or some other promotional material, you’re generally not limited to a certain size/quality. You can be as detailed as you want. When you are designing for the web, however, you need to make sure your web pages quickly load and are responsive, which is why you need to make sure your designs are far smaller in size. Thankfully, due to advanced compression techniques, this is no longer much of a worry, but it is something you should keep in mind, nonetheless.
2. Fully Leverage WordPress’s Features to Make the Conversion Easier
Despite WordPress being very friendly to beginners, it is still a very powerful content management system (CMS) with intricate features that truly allow you to develop excellent websites. And they can also be used during the PSD to WordPress conversion phase to take the process to the next level:
The Gutenberg editor: since most designers are rather subpar in coding, trying to convert their design into a functional website using HTML, CSS, and JS can be quite a chore. And most designers either need to invest a month learning these languages or fail the process.
Thankfully, WordPress has an answer for this: the Gutenberg editor. It was introduced relatively recently and offers a comprehensive graphical user interface that allows you to approach web design in a modular way. If you learn how to fully leverage Gutenberg, you can make the conversion process much easier, and you won’t have to code almost at all to get the project done.
Plugins and Widgets: One of WordPress’s distinguishing features is its plugin and widget support. Most specialists agree it is one of WordPress’s key reasons for success.
By using specific plugins, you can make the task of designing certain features and converting certain elements far easier. Do you have a forum design in your PSD file? You can install plugins to bring it to life easily.
Do you can interactive comment sections? There are plugins for that too. Are you looking for specific animations? You can likely find a WordPress feature that will help you implement it. Even a full-fledged e-commerce platform is possible: https://acclaim.agency/wordpress-development/psd-to-woocommerce-shop.
3. Take a Methodological Approach to the Conversion
Source: thenextscoop.com
Converting a PSD design into a functional web design is far from a simple task. It includes a lot of steps and there are some intricate details you could miss: you must make sure the design is responsive, the assets’ resolutions are appropriate, the template is expandable, etc.
Also Read: WordPress Customization Made Easy!
To achieve all this, you can’t approach the conversion haphazardly. You need to devise a methodological approach with clear outlines and steps. This way, you can make sure you hit all the necessary beats and do a thorough conversion job.
If you don’t do this during the conversion process, you’ll find yourself in a bind during the coding process dealing with bugs, unoptimized design choices, and more. You’ll save yourself a lot of time down the line if you take some time to plan ahead and lay out a clear plan of action before you start the conversion.
