Designing and developing websites is complex. User expectations rise alongside advancements in what is technically possible. As a consequence, the process has many moving parts you must keep in mind if you want to design and build web presences that provide a great user experience, rank well in search engines, and achieve client goals.

Even as an experienced freelance or agency developer, you might struggle to remember every item on the to-do list. The good news is, you don’t have to. By establishing a formalized web design process, you can create a roadmap to follow each time you build a new website.

Doing all the thinking beforehand ensures that you don’t forget anything crucial. It also frees up headspace for doing the actual work, avoids overwhelm, improves efficiency, and allows you to build better websites on repeat.

In this post, we’ll help you reap those benefits by establishing your own web design process. We’ll go through all the necessary steps and give you actionable advice on how to implement each and every one of them. This will give you a foundation to develop your own workflow and make life easier in the future.

How to use this information to develop your own process

We’ll go over the following steps (you can click on the links to jump directly to the part that most interests you):

1. Goal-setting
2. Scoping
3. Resourcing
4. Project management
5. Sitemap / wireframes
6. Copy / content creation
7. Staging site setup
8. Visual design
9. Testing
10. Launch
11. Site maintenance

Our goal is to cover each point as completely as possible to provide you with a blueprint for developing your own process. Take what’s useful and relevant to you and add any additional information you might need for your particular use cases, working style, industry, or else.

Be aware that a formalized web design process is a living document that you’ll likely change over time as you repeatedly go through it and as web design requirements change. That way, it always reflects your latest way of working and current level of technology.

To make getting started extra easy, we also created a customizable checklist template. To use it, just create a copy and adapt it to your needs as you go through the information below.

1. Determine website goals

The first thing you need is background information on the website you are about to build. The main objective is to understand its purpose, as this lays the groundwork for many decisions down the line.

For that, your first task is to understand who your client is. Their type of organization, industry, and audience make a big difference in the end product. Good questions to ask are:

• What exactly does your business do?
• What are the company’s vision, mission, and/or values?
• How do you differ from the competition?
• Which problems do you solve for your customers?
• Which challenges, opportunities, and trends are shaping your industry?
• What regulations or compliance requirements does your industry have?
• Is there an existing brand identity?

Once you have a better picture of the client, the second step is to find out how the website fits into their business. This is a set of questions that will help you do so:

• What’s the goal you hope to achieve with the site?
• Who is the intended audience? What’s the first impression they should have when entering the website and what actions should they take on it?
• What type of content are you planning to publish?
• What are must-have features and functionality?
• How should the site be different or the same as that of competitors?
• What’s the budget and timeline?

Questions like this are important for several reasons. First of all, lots of industries have distinct conventions when it comes to website design. For example, you would use a very different color scheme for a children’s toy store compared to a corporate financial services website. The client might also already have existing branding that you have to take into account to preserve an established look and hit the right tone.

In addition, the type of site you will build also has a big influence on the web design process. A brochure website, blog, and online shop all have very different purposes and require unique approaches. There can even be legal requirements that you have to meet. For example, on real-estate websites, visitors might have to virtually sign a contract before they can view portfolio items.

Without being crystal clear about what you are making and for what purpose, you are almost certain to get off on the wrong foot, which can be costly and time-consuming to correct. Therefore, spend enough time on the discovery phase until you have a firm grasp of the client’s needs. Extensive contact with stakeholders, market research, audience personas, a design brief, and competitor analysis are all useful tools for this stage.

2. Scope the project

Once you know what you are tasked with designing, the next step in the web design process is to put together the project scope. This is where you determine the exact functionality and technical requirements for the site. It also helps you estimate how long the process will take, allowing you to agree on the exact work to be done (to prevent scope creep) as well as deadlines and milestones with your client.

Ask your client for these basic pieces of information:

• How many pages does the site need?
• What will they contain? Do you have to account for things like forms or e-commerce functionality?
• What other features will be on the site?
• What about content? Will the client provide it, or is that part of your duties?

Once you have collected key information, you can estimate how long the total project will take. Be sure to build in some buffer for when, not if, something unexpected happens.

A very useful tool for visualizing the timeline is a Gantt chart.

It shows the project timeline, key deliverables, and their expected completion times. You can easily create Gantt charts using existing Excel or Google Sheets templates.

3. Identify and allocate resources

After this, it’s time to deal with your resources, including money, workforce, and tools. Let’s go over them one by one.

An established scope makes it easier to calculate project costs. For example, it helps you see how many hours it will take and calculate the cost of labor. However, don’t just think about the time—also consider external costs, such as:

• Domain and hosting fees
• Plugins or themes you might need to purchase
• Stock photos or graphics
• Fonts or other assets

Be sure to calculate these beforehand for yourself and to provide an accurate estimate to your client. We have a checklist for website costs if you need a refresher. For hosting options, consider:

• WordPress.com
• Pressable
• Bluehost

If you need a free tool for local development, check out Studio.

Another part of resourcing is determining who will do the work. If you’re a freelance full-stack developer, you might handle everything yourself. If you’re part of an agency, the work will likely be divided between the design and development teams. Either way, ensure there’s a clear plan and everyone knows what’s expected of them.

4. Prepare your project management platform

By now, you should have a good overview of the work that awaits you. It’s time to put it into order and make it more manageable.

The first step is to list all the phases and tasks the project will go through and add them to a project management tool. This also allows you to bring them into the correct order. Recommended tools include:

• Trello
• Asana
• Jira
• Google Sheets
• Excel

As mentioned earlier, you can also use the free checklist template included in this article.

Feel free to break the phases down into smaller chunks if that’s how you prefer to work. In addition, include all the resources you already have and attach them to their respective tasks. While you are at it, don’t forget to input the timings and milestones you determined earlier for each item. This will help you stay organized.

By the way, your planning should also include regular check-ins with clients for approvals and updates. This fosters collaboration and ensures everyone stays on the same page.

5. Create a sitemap and wireframes

From here, it’s time to start conceptualizing the end product and create a plan to follow along.

You’ve already determined the must-have pages for the website in the project scope. These often include the usual suspects (homepage, about page, contact page, legal pages, etc.), but you might also have less common ones depending on the project. The next step is to put them into relation to each other and plan the site structure. You can do so with a basic sitemap.

The way pages are arranged greatly influences a website’s navigation and user experience. For example, it determines how easy it is to find content and how often visitors have to click to reach it. A good structure also makes the site more crawlable, giving it an SEO boost.

Part of the site structure are also navigation and menus. They point out important pages and are often an initial entry point for visitors, so it’s important to consider them as well as other navigation elements like breadcrumbs.

Once you have the overall structure, the next task is to visualize individual pages. This is where you create layouts for each page and determine how elements will be arranged—a process also known as wireframing.

Wireframes let you map out the page structure before dealing with design considerations. They help you focus purely on usability and are a great tool to collect feedback from clients. Be sure to also map out your mobile layouts!

You can create wireframes using a variety of tools:

• Graph paper – Go old school with pen and paper.
• Google Docs – While not the best option, it still works. Tables are your friend.
• Professional design tools – Options include Balsamiq or Figma. If you use Figma, consider using a wireframing kit like Johannes WP, which is specifically made for wireframing WordPress websites.

You can find additional options in our article about wireframes.

6. Write the website copy

With the concept finished, you can start creating the visual parts of the website. Ideally, this doesn’t start with colors, fonts, and CSS but rather with written content.

While this might seem backward, it actually makes a lot of sense. Design should follow content, not the other way around. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you have a finished design but it can’t accommodate the intended text.

Writing copy doesn’t just mean crafting text for the main sections of the page wireframes you created earlier but also for navigational elements, buttons, forms, and other page elements.

There are several ways to handle this step:

• Receive the content from the client
• Draft the copy yourself (if that’s part of your agreement)
• Hire a content writer or copywriter.
• Use Jetpack AI to create placeholder copy

It’s important to be a bit flexible here. Content might still change and not everything has to be fully ready. It’s fine to use placeholders for some parts, like product descriptions.

However, you want at least a rough idea of what you need to accommodate in your page designs before you start creating them. This saves you from having to make time-consuming changes later.

7. Set up a staging site

Now that you’re ready to work on the actual website, it’s crucial to set up a development version. As a professional web developer, you know better than to do the design process on a live domain.

The typical approach is to use a staging site (which, incidentally, are available on all WordPress.com Business plans and above), or set up a local development environment, such as the aforementioned Studio.

Once that’s ready, you can immediately start creating the raw structure of the site. This includes setting up all the pages you scoped earlier and creating navigation items pointing to them.

While you’re at it, you can also install any plugins included in your scope, implement features like forms, and insert written content into the appropriate places to create a rough version of the site.

8. Create the visual design

The next step is visual design. This is where you implement the structure from your wireframes and make it look good with fonts, colors, and other elements that create the website’s aesthetic.

This part of the process often happens in two phases: first creating a design mockup and then implementing it. In a WordPress website, the central element for that is the theme, which controls the website’s design.

Here, you can either go with an existing theme or create your own. If you have a WordPress.com Business plan, either is an option since you can upload any third-party theme you want.

Obviously, making a theme from scratch is more work though it gives you the possibility to create a bespoke solution. Going with an existing theme takes less effort, yet it might not have all the features you want or need.

The most time-friendly solution is often to take a hybrid approach. That means finding a theme that is very close to what you are looking for in terms of design and functionality, and then customize it according to your needs.

Thanks to block themes and the WordPress Site Editor, this has become simpler than ever. For example, you can adapt visual elements like colors easily using Styles and/or the WordPress Customizer.

In addition, the Site Editor gives you control over all typography available on your website. You can assign a multitude of fonts to any text elements on your website.

Using custom CSS is also a possibility. 

Finally, your website will likely also include visual page content, such as photos, icons, graphics, or videos. Depending on your contract, these might either come from the client or be something you create. Be aware that you have the possibility to source free images directly inside the WordPress.com editor.

First, there is the Jetpack AI image creator. Simply insert an Image block and choose Generate with AI. 

Then, input your prompt in the panel that shows up.

You can also insert images from Openverse and Pexels.com by clicking the Block inserter button and choosing the Media tab.

Search for any image and click on a result you like to automatically add it to the editor, complete with the correct attribution.

9. Test the website thoroughly

Already done with the design? Alright hot shot, let’s move on then. Now it’s time to get to testing, which is one of the most crucial stages of the web design process. You don’t want to launch a website only to find parts or even the entire site not functioning correctly.

Testing should ideally happen on a staging site, especially one that uses the same environment as the eventual live website. This allows you to spot potential conflicts or problems that didn’t surface during development.

Here are the most important things to examine each page for:

• Double check the content – Content is the main attraction of any website. Go through all pages to ensure there are no typos, missing images, or other errors that detract from the user experience.
• Ensure all features work – Test all central functionality, such as web forms, shopping carts, and interactive elements. For example, see that form submissions reach the intended destination.
• Verify all links – A well-planned site structure is only effective if users can actually use it. Make sure that links go to the correct destinations and are not broken. A tool like Screaming Frog lets you scan for broken links in bulk.
• Check SEO – Make sure all pages have correct meta information, such as title tags and meta descriptions. Screaming Frog also allows you to scan for that.
• Measure speed – Page speed is a major usability and ranking factor. Run all pages through tools like PageSpeed Insights to identify performance bottlenecks and fix them. You can also use WordPress.com’s free Site Profiler tool.
• Test on different devices and browsers – Since most users access websites on mobile devices, ensure the site looks good on all screen sizes. Test the site on multiple browsers as well.
• Validate accessibility – Modern web design must meet accessibility standards, such as WCAG guidelines. Check for sufficient color contrast, keyboard navigation, and compatibility with assistive technologies using tools like Lighthouse (which is also part of PageSpeed Insights) or WAVE.

Invite your clients or other stakeholders to get involved in testing as well. Fresh eyes can catch issues you might have missed. Plus, you’ll need client sign-off on the website before launching. User testing is also a possibility at this stage.

10. Launch

With testing complete and any problems resolved, it’s time to publish the website. Here, too, having a detailed launch checklist can be extremely helpful to ensure you don’t overlook anything.

After all, there are important things to do, such as connecting Google Analytics and Search Console, setting up security measures, creating user accounts, and configuring backups.

When you set a launch date, be sure that any promotional efforts, such as social media updates and email campaigns, are prepared in advance. This coordination ensures that your website makes a big splash as soon as it goes live.

11. Do regular site maintenance

While the website design process is mostly done after launch, it doesn’t mean your work is over. Websites are ongoing projects that require regular maintenance to stay functional, secure, and effective.

Here are some common maintenance tasks:

• Addressing smaller bugs
• Publishing and updating content
• Creating new pages
• Building traffic
• Performing software updates
• Conducting security audits
• Running backups
• Measuring KPIs through analytics

Smart developers have a plan for maintenance to continue creating value for clients—and revenue for themselves.

Of course, it’s best to automate as much of this work as possible. For example, WordPress.com automatically handles backups and updates, so you don’t have to do them manually or set up a separate solution.

You can find a full list of recommended maintenance tasks in this article.

Stay on top of things with your own web design process

Creating a website that meets today’s high standards for design, usability, and performance is no small feat. With countless moving parts to manage, having a structured web design process is essential to stay on track.

By following a plan beforehand, you can save time, reduce errors, and ensure that nothing important gets overlooked. It allows you to focus on delivering results that align with your client’s goals while making your workflow repeatable for future projects. The steps outlined in this article serve as a flexible foundation to help you put together a process that works for you.

Now it’s your turn: What strategies or tools have helped you master the web design process? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

In the world of web development, creating custom layouts often feels like a balancing act between functionality and design. But with Gutenberg, WordPress’s powerful block editor, developers now have the tools to craft complex, unique layouts—all without the need for third-party page builders. Whether you’re building a site from scratch or looking to enhance an existing one, Gutenberg offers a streamlined, flexible approach to layout design.

In this post, we dive into five specific Gutenberg blocks that stand out for their versatility and power. 

• Group Block: Allows you to group multiple elements and apply consistent styling across them.
• Columns Block: Enables developers to create multi-column layouts that are fully responsive across all devices.
• Cover Block: Combines visuals with layered content, like text and buttons, to create immersive, standout sections.
• Spacer Block: Provides an easy way to manage consistent spacing throughout a layout without adjusting individual block settings.
• Query Loop Block: Dynamically displays lists of posts or other content, offering flexible filtering and layout options.

These blocks are essential tools for developers who want to create custom layouts that are both visually stunning and fully functional. Keep reading to explore how each block works, see examples of them in action, and learn about potential use cases that can elevate your next project.

Unlock Custom Layouts with the Group Block

When it comes to crafting custom layouts in WordPress, the Group block is one of the most versatile tools in your arsenal. This block allows you to combine multiple elements—such as text, images, and buttons—into a single, cohesive section. By grouping elements together and utilizing the Group block variations, you gain greater control over their positioning, styling, and responsiveness.

Why the Group Block is Powerful

The strength of the Group block lies in its ability to simplify your design process. Instead of having to adjust settings on each element individually, the Group block allows you to apply consistent styling to an entire section. This not only saves time but also ensures that your layouts are cohesive and visually appealing across different devices. It’s also the primary block used for creating fixed elements, such as a sticky header or sidebar.

How to Work with the Group Block

In the screen recording below, you’ll see how the Group block enhances the process of building a hero section by combining elements like images, text, and buttons into one cohesive section. Notice how easily you can adjust the spacing, colors, and alignment, streamlining your design workflow.

Putting the Group Block into Action

The Group block excels at creating reusable modular sections, such as a call-to-action or feature area, that can be deployed consistently across multiple pages. This block is also essential for organizing complex content arrangements into a single, unified section that can be easily updated site-wide. Whether you’re crafting a sticky header or organizing a product showcase, the Group block gives you precise control over how these elements are positioned and styled.

Design with Flexibility Using the Columns Block

The Columns block offers flexibility in organizing content side-by-side, allowing developers to create multi-column layouts that can accommodate grids, comparison sections, or any layout where parallel information is key.

Why Developers Love the Columns Block

The true power of the Columns block lies in its versatility for designing structured layouts. Its flexibility allows you to customize the number of columns, their width, and spacing, from simple two-column layouts to more complex grids. The Columns block is also fully responsive, ensuring layouts automatically adjust across different screen sizes, providing developers with seamless control over visually balanced designs.

See the Columns Block in Action

This recording showcases the Columns block used to create a three-column layout featuring services or products. Notice how columns with multiple components can be duplicated and edited.

When to Use the Columns Block for Maximum Impact

The Columns block is ideal when content needs to be displayed side by side, such as in service comparisons, product grids, or team member profiles. Combining it with the Group block allows for more complex, unified sections with consistent styling while still leveraging the flexibility of columns.

Create Stunning Visual Impact with the Cover Block

After organizing your content with the Group and Columns blocks, the Cover block steps in to add a bold, immersive visual experience. Whether it’s a full-width section with a background image or a full-screen video, the Cover block helps create standout moments on your page, perfect for grabbing your audience’s attention as they scroll.

Why the Cover Block Stands Out

What sets the Cover block apart is its ability to combine beautiful visuals with layered content like text and buttons. This block allows for a sleek, modern look with customizable overlays, and its parallax effect creates a sense of depth as users scroll. It offers developers a visually striking way to engage visitors and direct attention to key content.

How to Use the Cover Block as a Section Break

The following video demonstrates the Cover block being used to create a dynamic section break with a full-width image, overlay text, and a contrasting color filter. Pay attention to how this visually striking break guides users from one section to the next.

Where the Cover Block Shines

Whether for a hero section, a banner to break up sections, or a feature area to emphasize important content, the Cover block works best where you want to make an impression. It’s ideal for landing pages, events, or promotional areas where a mix of powerful visuals and actionable text is needed to guide visitors toward their next step. 

Create Balance and Breathing Room with the Spacer Block

For developers, clean, balanced layouts are crucial to a great user experience. The Spacer block might seem simple at first glance, but its ability to fine-tune the spacing between elements gives you precise control over your design. Rather than manually adjusting margins or padding across multiple blocks, the Spacer block offers a streamlined approach for maintaining consistency throughout your layout.

Why Developers Choose the Spacer Block

One of the key benefits of the Spacer block is its ability to apply consistent spacing without needing to modify each block’s individual settings. For developers managing complex layouts, this can be a huge time-saver. You can insert Spacer blocks between sections to ensure consistent spacing, avoiding the need to repeatedly jump between block settings. This results in a cleaner workflow and a more polished design.

Simplifying Layout Spacing

This clip highlights how the Spacer block ensures balanced spacing between sections. You’ll see how adding Spacer blocks keeps the layout clean and cohesive without needing to adjust individual padding and margins for each element. Plus, see how changing the height of multiple Spacer blocks is one step when you create a Spacer synced pattern.

Where the Spacer Block Adds Efficiency

The Spacer block shines when you need to maintain uniform spacing throughout a project. You can preset its default dimensions or sync it within design patterns, and any future adjustments can be done in one place, saving you time when managing entire page or site-wide updates. For added flexibility, you can apply custom CSS classes to synced Spacer block patterns, making it simple to adjust spacing for different screen sizes. This not only improves the speed of implementation but also ensures consistency across your layouts, whether for landing pages, posts, or custom templates.

Dynamically Display Content with the Query Loop Block

The Query Loop block allows you to easily pull in lists of posts, pages, or custom post types, dynamically displaying content based on specific parameters such as categories, tags, or author. It’s an essential tool for developers who want to showcase content in customizable layouts without needing to manually curate each section.

Why Developers Rely on the Query Loop Block

The Query Loop block provides developers with powerful filtering and display options that are fully customizable. With complete control over how posts are pulled and arranged, developers can customize the Query Loop block to display filtered content based on categories, tags, or other criteria, allowing for tailored blog grids, portfolios, or archive pages that fit seamlessly into their overall site design.

Creating and Enhancing a Custom Query Loop Layout

This example shows how the Query Loop block is configured to display a custom set of blog posts, filtered by category. Notice the versatility and how integrating blocks together enhances the layout, resulting in a dynamic, visually balanced blog section that updates automatically.

Where the Query Loop Block Shines

On sites with frequently updated content, the Query Loop block provides a dynamic solution for showcasing new material. When integrated with other blocks it helps developers create visually engaging layouts that update automatically while keeping a consistent design structure.

Elevate Your Layouts with These 5 Powerful Blocks

These five versatile Gutenberg blocks—Group, Columns, Cover, Spacer, and Query Loop—can transform your layouts, helping you build dynamic, fully customized designs. Whether you’re creating responsive multi-column sections with the Columns block, adding visually striking breaks with the Cover block, or displaying dynamic content with the Query Loop block, these tools empower you to build and refine layouts with precision and creativity.

Each block offers unique strengths, and when used together, they give developers a powerful toolkit to craft sophisticated designs directly within the WordPress editor. By combining these blocks, you can streamline your workflow, maintain consistency, and create layouts that are both visually appealing and highly functional.

Try It Yourself!

Now it’s your turn. Experiment with these blocks in your next project and explore the different ways they can work together to create custom layouts tailored to your needs. In the comments below, share your unique Gutenberg-powered layouts and show us how you’ve applied these blocks to your projects. We’d love to see what you come up with!

Get ready to meet your new development best friend: the Studio Assistant. 

The Studio Assistant is a smart chatbot integrated within Studio, our free and open source local development app, and it’s now available for all Studio users to assist you in building WordPress sites effortlessly.

The Assistant leverages WordPress.com infrastructure and our WordPress knowledge base to provide helpful responses using Retrieval Augmented Generation, so you’ll get tailored-to-WordPress responses every time.

Your handy development companion

Building WordPress sites locally has never been easier. With the Studio Assistant, you can quickly configure new sites, manage existing sites, and run complex WP-CLI commands—all through a simple and intuitive chat interface.

Check out what the Assistant can do directly within the Studio app:

Why you’ll love the Studio Assistant

There are many reasons to love the Studio Assistant, but here are just a few:

• You can speak to the Assistant in any language, and it will respond in the same language, so that you can learn in the language that’s best for you.
• The Assistant gives you the ability to open site files with just one click, so you won’t need to go digging in your site files manually.
• The Assistant uses context about your specific site (like what themes and plugins are installed) to give you tailored responses and suggestions.

But seeing is believing, right? Here are some exciting use cases for the Assistant:

Ask and discover

Say you’re looking for an SEO plugin but are unsure of your options. Ask the Assistant, and you’ll get specific recommendations.

Code and content blocks written for you

When you ask the Assistant to write posts or code, it will provide you with Gutenberg blocks or code that you can simply copy and paste.

Tailored to your site

Moreover, the Studio Assistant is trained on WordPress-specific documentation and has access to a bunch of context about your site; therefore, it’s able to respond with site-specific information and recommendations.

WP-CLI commands with just one click

The Assistant is extra slick because you can run commands inline, removing the steps of installing WP-CLI and running commands in your terminal––simply click Run, and your recommended commands will be run for you:

Elevate your expertise

You’ll also get a handy output about what the suggested commands do, helping you learn as you use the tool. This aligns with our desire to continue giving developers more ways to level-up their development skills and knowledge.

And if that isn’t enough to convince you to incorporate the Studio Assistant into your development workflow, here’s what Hoang Hxn said after he got early access to the feature:

After more than two months of using the Studio Assistant, it has become a great tutor that has helped me learn WordPress 100 times faster. I can ask questions in my native language, and the Studio Assistant can return Vietnamese results, in both complex terms and simple, easy-to-understand language for beginners like me.

In addition, I can execute CLI commands directly and quickly without knowing the technicalities, and I can create sample posts and pages quickly. I can also ask questions for beginners (like “what is the purpose of WordPress plugins?”) without being afraid that they’re “too beginner.”

The Studio Assistant answers these basic questions quickly, accurately, and directly in the Studio app; it prevents me from having to go to forums and wait for my questions to be answered.

Ready to get started with the Studio Assistant?

We thought you might be.

Start leveraging Studio Assistant’s powerful capabilities in just a few steps:

1. Download and install Studio––for free on Windows and Mac.
2. Login with your WordPress.com account (free or paid).
3. Create a new Studio site.
4. Click on the Assistant tab.
5. Start chatting.

Let us know what you think!

We’re thrilled to finally share the Studio Assistant with you. We’d love to hear about some of the tasks you hope to automate with the Studio Assistant in the comments below.

As a reminder, Studio is a free, open source tool, so we welcome any and all feedback in GitHub. Explore other Issues and create your own here.

You can also explore the Studio documentation for more tips on using the Assistant.