If you’re like me, you’ve picked up a copy of a web design magazine, thinking you are so cool and so pro (“Look at me, fellow book store patrons, I’m a real web designer. I read web design magazines.”) and eventually find yourself lost, confused, and feeling like an amateur. What the hell is jQref? I’m supposed to already be fluent in HTML5? I can’t design for iPad, I don’t even have an iPad yet! Who am I? ...these may be thoughts that cross your mind.

But you’ve got to start somewhere right? And rather than giving up on the high-speed world of web design and it’s constantly evolving strategies and techniques, you’ve got to start small and work your way up using the techniques that aren’t just passing fads, but effective methods to improve your skills. For the next few weeks I’m going to be writing about basic web production principles for the web designer determined to step up their game without pulling a muscle. Web design robots need not apply.

Prep Work: Just Do It

The least enjoyable part of probably any task is the prep work. The worst is when you actually spend more time prepping than actually doing what you want to get done. Take for example painting your living room. You’re all excited about getting rid of the nasty wallpaper and replacing it with a sophisticated coat of “Irish Cream Ivory”, but before you even dip your brush in the paint you’ve got to remove the wallpaper, clean the walls, prime them, lay down tarps, tape off the vents, etc. etc. etc. Not fun.

You know what else isn’t fun? Scope identification. Technical specifications. Revised wireframes versions 10, 11, and 12. But what would your living room look like if you just grabbed a brush and started slapping your classy white paint up? Total crap. Hitting the ground running when designing a website... Does. Not. Work. Period. So as much as you might hate it (or hey, maybe you’re one of those freaks that loves writing eight paragraphs on what “cross browser compatibility” entails), the prep work has got to be done. Next week check out the 4 must-do prep tasks for every project. They’re not as painful as they seem, I promise.