Developing a Photoshop visuals

 Deciding on how your Photoshop visuals will look

As you might have noticed, we have not gone near a computer yet. This is good. A huge mistake for any designer to make, whether they be web or graphic, is to start working on a computer straight away.
 Start with a blank piece of paper 
 When I have no real plan - just a vague notion in my mind and eye - the resulting design takes five times longer to create, and it's not as fully rounded as if I spent an hour or so with a pencil and pad creating a basic theme and structure. It much easy to work from pre-designed guidelines than it is from a loose idea in your head 

 Considering layout as well as look 
And it is not just about drawing a potential framework for the website itself - we have to consider all the potential & widgets , info panels, forms and other bits and bobs that creep into a design once construction in under way.  
Will the site be based on a one, two or three column grid? 
Or will it be a mixture of grids?
What elements will go into each column and why?
 What happens when you have a page which only has enough content to fill a single column? 
 If you use space-fillers, will they be relevant and practical? Or an abstract white space filler?
What about images? Will there be consistency across every page (with same-size pictures in predictable locations), or will images only appear where necessary?
Will there be a second tier of navigation to support the main menu? If so, how will it work?
If you have any side boxes for notes or contact details, what will they look like?
Where will they appear and why?

 As with the site map, the design is bound to evolve as you proceed with the site build - but you have to invest some time in developing a solid starting point - otherwise a mess will ensue 

Fixed Width or Expandable? 
I generally prefer websites to be fixed-width rather than fluid or expandable (unless practicality demands a fluid layout). The main reason for this is that a fixed-width page gives me more control over the design and layout. There nothing worse than a page full of text expanding in a single measure all the way across a widescreen displays. I much rather have a sensible width with margins both side - and that is how we will create our site.  
  
Once I feel I've gone as far as I can with my thumbnails and site sketches, I move to Photoshop