How to Build a Professional Website from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Guide

Welcome to this comprehensive guide on creating a fully functional, beautiful website from start to finish! In this blog post, we’ll walk through the professional web design process as outlined by Ron Sea, a seasoned designer with 20 years of experience and the instructor behind Flux Academy’s web design courses. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your skills, this guide will equip you with the tools and knowledge to craft a custom website—without relying on templates—and even start charging for your work. Let’s dive into the full process: planning, structuring, designing, developing, and publishing.

Introduction: Why Web Design Matters

Web design is a powerful blend of creativity and technical skill. It allows you to collaborate with diverse businesses, work remotely, and meet a universal need—every company requires a website. Ron’s goal with this course is simple yet ambitious: to get you building simple websites independently, sparking your passion for web design, and preparing you for advanced professional training. This process mirrors what top agencies use to charge $50,000–$100,000+ per project, and you’ll learn it step-by-step with no prior knowledge required.

We’ll work through a real-world example: designing a website for Massix, a new pharmaceutical company pioneering medical uses of psilocybin (magic mushrooms). The challenge? Building trust and credibility in an industry often misunderstood. Let’s get started.

The Professional Web Design Process

Unlike the amateur approach of tweaking templates, the professional process starts from a blank canvas to deliver a tailored solution. It consists of four key stages:

Planning and Strategy
Structure (UX)
Design (UI)
Development

Each phase builds on the last, ensuring the final product is both functional and visually compelling. Let’s break them down.

Step 1: Planning and Strategy

Why It Matters:
Before designing anything, you need to understand why the website exists. As Ron quotes Einstein, “If I had one hour to solve a problem to save my life, I’d spend 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask.” Strategy defines the purpose, audience, and goals, acting as the project’s compass.

Key Actions:

Identify the Website Type: Websites fall into five main categories:
- E-commerce (online shopping)
- Marketing/Business (digital business card)
- Content/Media (blogs, magazines)
- Educational (online courses)
- Portfolio (showcasing work) For Massix, we’re building a marketing website to establish credibility.
Set Goals: Common goals include selling products, building trust, generating leads, or educating. Massix needs to build trust with investors and partners.
Conduct a Strategy Session: Interview your client to learn about their business, customers, and vision. Ron sat with Omar from Massix to understand their innovative healthcare solutions and the stigma around psilocybin.
Create a Brief: Summarize findings into a brief with keywords (e.g., healthcare, pharmaceutical, trust). Ron also asked Omar for reference websites to align expectations.

Your Task: Find a friend, family member, or local business needing a website. Conduct a strategy session and draft a brief.

Step 2: Structure (UX)

Why It Matters:
The structure ensures visitors can navigate and find what they need. This is the user experience (UX) phase—focusing on content and layout without aesthetics.

Key Actions:

Build a Sitemap: List the pages and sections. Common pages include Homepage, About, Products/Services, Blog, and Contact. For Massix, a single-page “one-pager” works since it’s an early-stage company.
- Sections: Navigation, Hero, Mission, Product, Partners, Contact, Footer.
Create Wireframes: Sketch low-fidelity layouts showing structure, not design. Ron uses pen and paper for speed, then digitizes them. For Massix:
- Hero: Heading, subheading, button, image.
- Mission: Text over an image.
- Product: Text and images.
- Partners: Logo list.
- Contact: Form and email link.
Tools:
- Pen and Paper: Quick brainstorming.
- Relume AI: Generates sitemaps and wireframes (free tier available).
- Figma: Free design tool for digital wireframes. Ron imports his sketch into Figma, using rectangles for placeholders and text for content.

Massix Example:
Ron sketches a one-pager, then builds it in Figma with placeholders for logos, headings, and a contact form. He shares this with Omar to confirm the structure before proceeding.

Your Task: Convert your brief into a sitemap and wireframes. Use pen and paper or Figma to visualize the layout.

Step 3: Design (UI)

Why It Matters:
This is where creativity shines. Beyond mere user interface (UI), web design uses visuals—color, typography, imagery—to tell a story and reinforce the message.

Key Actions:

Gather Inspiration: Collect references to guide your visual choices.
- Sources: Behance, Pinterest, Dribbble, Awwwards.
- Massix Keywords: Healthcare, pharmaceutical, psilocybin, scientific, trust.
- Ron compiles images in a Figma “Inspiration” page, including client references and competitor sites.
Curate a Mood Board: Narrow down to a cohesive vision. Ron selects:
- A rainbow gradient (hinting at psychedelics in a clean, medical way).
- Clean photography with natural elements.
- Minimalist cards with rounded corners.
Define Visuals:
- Colors: Black, white, gray, and a rainbow gradient (purple to orange).
- Typography: Sans-serif fonts (Safron for headings, Inter for body text).
- Imagery: Lab photos and abstract brain connections.
Design in Figma: Apply these to the wireframes. Ron styles Massix’s site with a dark background, white text, and gradient accents, ensuring it looks trustworthy yet innovative.

Your Task: Collect inspiration, create a mood board, and design your wireframes in Figma with colors, fonts, and imagery.

Step 4: Development

Why It Matters:
Development brings the design to life, making it functional and responsive across devices. Ron uses Webflow, a no-code tool, to build the site without writing code.

Key Actions:

Set Up in Webflow: Import assets (images, fonts) and structure the site.
- Massix Layout: Navbar, Hero (two-column grid), Mission (image with text), Product (three-column grid), Partners (logos with gradient lines), Contact (form and email), Footer (gradient background).
Style Elements: Apply classes for consistency (e.g., “section” for padding, “form-field” for inputs).
- Typography: Safron (headings), Inter (body).
- Colors: Gradient dividers, gray form fields, purple buttons.
Add Interactivity: Link buttons to sections (e.g., “Mission” scrolls to Mission section) and set email links.
Ensure Responsiveness: Adjust layouts for tablet, mobile landscape, and portrait:
- Reduce font sizes (H1 from 50px to 27px on mobile).
- Stack columns (two-column grids become single-column on mobile).
- Shrink images and spacing (e.g., 290px images to 90px logos).
Publish: Webflow offers a free subdomain (e.g., massix.webflow.io). Custom domains require a hosting plan.

Massix Example:
Ron builds a sleek, responsive site in Webflow, previews it across breakpoints, and publishes it live. The client loves the result!

Your Task: Build your site in Webflow, style it, test responsiveness, and publish it.

Final Thoughts: Wowing Your Clients

Designing and delivering a website that delights your client is incredibly rewarding. Ron emphasizes that this feeling—paired with the creative and technical fulfillment of web design—makes it a fantastic career. You’ve now learned the professional process:

Planning: Define the why and who.
Structure: Organize content logically.
Design: Craft a compelling visual story.
Development: Build and launch a functional site.

For Massix, we created a trustworthy, modern one-pager that balances medical credibility with psilocybin’s innovative edge. Now it’s your turn—apply these steps to your project and share your results! Ready to go pro? Check out Flux Academy’s advanced courses for mentorship and community support.

Happy designing! Let me know how it goes in the comments.