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Design

Design vs front-end dev

I want to create a website for my school. I would like for someone to tell me the difference between designing a website in photoshop or just doing it with code. What can I do in Photoshop, that I can't do in html/css/sass/javascript. Btw, what is javascript used for? Thanks for the help 1

2 Answers

This is a great blog post that details what designing a website in photoshop is, and why it's probably not a good idea: http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/psd-to-html-is-dead

Building a website from scratch, from pure code, will mostly likely result in a better website. You can of course still use Photoshop to wireframe and build a design you like, and in the end it's personal preference.

JavaScript is most often used to add functionality to a website's front end. Image sliders, (often) drop-down menus, calculators, etc, are all built with JavaScript, and often: jQuery, the most popular JavaScript Framework that makes Front-End development a breeze.

When you design from scratch is better to play first in Photoshop because allow you to preview in real-time and a good sketch is usefull. Starting from that premise, it make your code more easier when you develop for browser. Is more practicable because you can slice images without lossless pixels on slice and so forth. I encourage you to view Photoshop course.