Design your way

Most web designers lack development skills.

Even those who have those skills, generally prefer to stick to the aesthetics, and leave the coding and testing up to the developers. Working with a tool like Photoshop makes life easier for both parties, since transferring PSD files is often all that’s involved.

Designers like to be kept in the loop however. And developers often have questions needing answers. Or they have suggestions on how certain aspects of a design might be modified to produce a better product.

Finding the right developer involves more than looking for one having the expertise. Transparency is important; as is choosing a developer who treats you as a partner.

This is true whether you work for a web design agency that has numerous projects underway at the same time, or if you’re a freelancer who typically works on one project at a time.

Where then, do you find the best design to code services?

Look no further.

PSD to Many Things

PSD to Manythings will take your PSD files, and convert them into almost anything you want; HTML5/CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress – etc. If your project is a website, you’re obviously covered. The same is true for mobile devices including standard Android phones, iPhones, or even a large iMac display. If you know a designer who uses Sketch instead of Photoshop, PSD to Manythings serves Sketch users as well.

As you have a right to expect, the code you receive will be responsive and W3C validated, and the team takes special care to maintain the sematic code structure required to achieve an optimized SEO score. Once coding is completed, the development team cross checks the resulting website on all the major Android and iOS powered devices.

The team takes pride in delivering high-performing websites, and guarantees a page speed score that will keep the users, and the search engines, happy. They don’t work to a rigid set of standards either. Recognizing that the technology is ever-changing, they constantly search for the best coding standards available.

Direct Basing

Working with Direct Basing is about as easy as it gets. A visit to their website is all it takes to get a rough cost estimate. Having done that, simply upload your files to Direct Basing. The team will take a look, and give you a quote; and they guarantee there will be no surprises. Direct Basing is transparent about their pricing. Once you give them your go-ahead, you can expect to receive your code online at or before the agreed-upon deadline.

Direct Basing can save you money by allowing you to take on more design work during the time you might otherwise spend coding. They can save design agencies money as well, by eliminating any need for them to hire a full-time developer.

If converting PSD to HTML5 or responsive HTML5 is what you need, you’re set. The Direct Basing team’s services also include slicing and coding PSD to WordPress.

Xfive – Developers Who Care

Xfive, formerly XHTMLized, is a joy to work with. If the percentage of return customers (83%) means anything, their customers must be a highly-satisfied lot. You won’t see it of course, but when they finish your project, there’ll be high fives all around. The Xfive team enjoys celebrating success, which happens to be a constant occurrence. Xfive is very much a team of developers who care.

Whether you work with Photoshop, Sketch, or AI, members of the Xfive team will convert your design to a modern, fully functional frontend.

You’ll be working with a team that’s been involved in frontend and backend development for 10 years. When you submit your design, you’ll be treated like a partner, and not like just another paying customer. Whether you’re a member of a large design team, or a team of one, Xfive likes to think of themselves as being a natural extension of your team.

In addition to their offices in U.S. (San Francisco, Seattle), Poland, and Australia, Xfive has a global network of developers, so time zone difference is never a problem.

Design to Code by Netlings

Netlings is an India-based web development studio that is well known for its expertise in frontend development and WordPress integration. Their focus is on PSD to HTML, Email, Shopify, WordPress, and Ruby on Rails. They will however, accept your design in any of the common formats, and convert it to semantic, SEO-friendly and W3C compatible, responsive code.

Netlings takes on everything from ultra-large projects to any of your small stuff that needs attending to.

Things to Check Before Submitting Your PSD Files

Web design pros take great care to make certain the PSD files they submit will be complete from the developer’s point of view. In spite of their best intentions, mistakes or omissions can sometimes occur. When something is missing or incorrect, it inevitably adds to the development time; and consequently, the cost.

Common sources of errors or omissions include working in a hurry-up mode, the re-emergence of a bad habit, or even a bit of laziness. These situations can happen to anyone, which makes it important to check how you are organizing the elements of your design as you go, and giving your files a final check before handing them over.

Even if mistakes are inevitable, they can be caught in time and eliminated if you follow these simple practices:

Make certain that everything needing a name, has a name. Layers, for example, must be named. A new Adobe CS6 Photoshop feature provides search functionality for your design layers. There is therefore, no reason to neglect naming each one. By doing so, you’ll make the developer’s job just that much easier.

You also should check to see that changed states in your Photoshop design have been appropriately named and highlighted. It’s mostly a matter of establishing a simple naming and color convention; and sticking to it. This is especially important when your design contains multiple states, such as can occur during the hover state of a button.

Check to make sure you’ve properly defined and identified rollover states; action states of call to action elements and links. It’s better to do this early, instead of doing it as an afterthought.

Are blend modes present in your files? They can be useful to shorten image processing times, but they need to be eliminated. Blend modes cannot be recreated in CSS. If you neglect them, or leave them in on purpose, you can expect some unintended results, since the affected website images will not display as intended.

Content flexibility should be checked. In the course of development or subsequent maintenance, you may wish to add text, or change an image. Make sure you’ve left room to do so, and you haven’t boxed yourself, or your developer, in. It’s rather commonplace for a developer to have to adjust content in one place or another.

Include special elements such as special fonts, logos, and supporting content, in an assets folder that accompanies your PSD file. It will prove to be a time-saver, and the developer will appreciate it.

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