ASP.NET MVC View/Site Design

Question

Hi All, This stems from my question that i started at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3561898/mvc-beginner-question

Im now confident in developing a MVC website from the MVC side of things.

My fatal floor now is the UI level designing. i.e. designing views and master pages including css styling.

Just wanting to get any advice on where i should start? Im currently about to look at the expression studio to see if that will help.

I need to get up and running in this quickly so that it doesnt hold back the development of the website.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Learn how HTML, CSS and Javascript work together. MVC gives you more power. With more power comes more responsibility. The stronger you are at those areas the easier everything Web will be.

Specifically CSS and Javascript...

Answer 2

I would look at a CSS grid-framework like 960 Grid System or Blueprint.

There is often controversy from CSS/Markup purists as to whether the use of such frameworks is valid, but they often overlook that not everyone is a CSS expert. I have found that the use of these frameworks has saved me hours of productivity since my CSS skills (as a programmer) are not that great.

As far as using Expression, I tend to use this as a "test-bed" with simple HTML files. The Designer and CSS Style support seem to be more interactive than that which Visual Studio supports, so for quick mock-ups -- Expression, then move that HTML/CSS over to VS as soon as possible.

One other priceless tool to use while designing is the add-on "Firebug" for Firefox ... it allows you to inspect single elements on your page, the CSS properties affecting that element - it even allows you to change CSS attributes "on-the-fly" to immediately see the ramificatiions. This tool has saved me HOURS!

Answer 3

Consider finding a suitable theme in a free open source template.

Consider something that suits at http://www.freecsstemplates.org/.