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General Discussion

Posted by Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points

How to best visually communicate a layout objective on this forum?

Hi there

I'm wondering what's the best way to go about visually displaying a problem or goal that I have with a website design layout so that I can accurately explain what I want to achieve. Is there a preferred way to do this on this forum or some other site that can be linked to, to display my code and/or what I want to achieve visually?

It would easy to explain my goal face to face but it's a little more challenging trying to word a question over a forum so just wondering if there's an optimal way to tackle this issue here

Thanks in advance

6 Answers

Paul Graham
Paul Graham
1,396 Points
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
1,396 Points

Well visually, you're probably best off with making a simple wireframe and posting the graphic. You can use something like Balsamiq, or Dia, or one of the many many web-based wireframing tools out there. Dia is GPLed free software, so you might want to start there. Balsamiq is free to use if you save with the import-export functionality even though it's a commercial program. They actively support this behavior for those that don't want to pay.

It's $80 though and I've used it to wireframe probably 2 dozen commercial sites and generally spend about 5 to 10 hours a month working in it, so it's not a bad buy if you do a lot of concept UI/UX/design work.

Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points
Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points

Thanks for your reply, Paul. Much appreciated. I'll have a look at your suggestions over the next few days and hopefully be able to use one to post my question coherently!

Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points
Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points

Thanks, James. Looks useful.

I think however I didn't quite word my question the way I intended.

What I was looking to ask was if I had been experimenting with some CSS to create a particular layout but it wasn't quite working out exactly as I intended, how, on this forum, could I display what's being generated in my browser, share my code and also perhaps an image (which I can easily create in Photoshop/illustrator) of what I'm intending to create so I could get accurate feedback?

Thanks again

Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points
Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points

Ah hah! I've just discovered Codepen. I think that'll work nicely!

Now just wondering what the accepted standard is for posting an image here?

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

One of the easiest ways to do that is to use an image hosting service like imgur.com.

Now you just need to link to the image in the forum using markdown ![alt text](http://example.com/path/to/img.jpg "Title")

Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points
Qori Mayu
Qori Mayu
2,514 Points

Thank you very much again, James!

I wonder if you'd be able to look at my other question re: layout issue with a margin and tell me what you think?

No worries if not

Thanks again