How I Prototype a Web Page: A Step-by-Step Guide

Prototyping web pages is an essential part of my workflow when working on projects. Whether it’s a blog redesign or a landing page for a new project, I follow a simple and efficient process. In this article, I will share my preferred method and tools for web page prototyping.

Using Tailwind for Prototyping

To build prototypes, I find Tailwind CSS to be a powerful choice. It provides a utility-first CSS framework that allows me to quickly create and customize components.

Here’s how I set up the Tailwind and PostCSS pipeline:

1. Create postcss.config.js file with the following code:

const purgecss = require('@fullhuman/postcss-purgecss')
const cssnano = require('cssnano')

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('tailwindcss'),
    require('autoprefixer'),
    cssnano({ preset: 'default' }),
    purgecss({
      content: ['./layouts/**/*.html', './src/**/*.vue', './src/**/*.jsx'],
      defaultExtractor: content => content.match(/[\w-/:]+(?<!:)/g) || []
    })
  ]
}

2. Create tailwind.config.js file with the following contents:

module.exports = {
  theme: {},
  variants: {},
  plugins: [],
}

3. Create a tailwind.css file with the following content:

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

4. Create a package.json file with the following content:

{
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "build:css": "postcss tailwind.css -o output.css",
    "watch": "watch 'npm run build:css' ./layouts"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@fullhuman/postcss-purgecss": "^1.3.0",
    "autoprefixer": "^9.7.1",
    "cssnano": "^4.1.10",
    "postcss": "^7.0.21",
    "tailwindcss": "^1.1.3",
    "watch": "^1.0.2"
  }
}

5. Create a layouts/index.html page and add your HTML code.

Using Browser Sync for Live Updates

To streamline my workflow, I use the browser-sync utility to automatically sync changes in the browser whenever I save the page or the CSS is regenerated. Here’s how to set it up:

1. Install browser-sync globally by running npm install -g browser-sync.

2. Start a terminal shell, navigate to the project folder, and run the following command:

npm run watch

3. Additionally, start browser-sync by running the following command in a separate terminal shell:

browser-sync start --server --files "."

This will start a server and automatically open the browser, pointing it to the newly created local web server.

Finalizing the Prototyping Process

Now that you have set up Tailwind and Browser Sync, you can start the prototyping process. Open your preferred code editor and the browser side by side. With live updates enabled, any changes you make to both the HTML and CSS files will be automatically reflected in the browser.

By following this simple workflow, you can quickly prototype web pages and iterate on your design ideas. Happy prototyping!