Free Website Builders in all of Their Glory

You don't have to be a pro at Dreamweaver in order to create stellar websites now-a-days, you can also relish in the tools provided by free, online, website builders. For this weeks project, we were given a certain Web Builder site to work with and told to make a website involving a topic surrounding Earth Day, which just happened. I was given the web builder, FROONT, which I had never heard of before, but when I began using it I was greatly surprised.

When you first open the webpage, you are presented with a home screen that introduces you to the website.

Once you sign up, or login, which is free, you can go ahead and start making your webpage.

I already have a page that I am currently creating, which you will see later, but you can click the "Create New Page" button to move to the actual builder. 

This is where all of the magic happens, and it may look a little intimidating at first, but don't panic. The white area is your canvas, and where all of the content will be placed. Over on the left you can see a little roll over, interactive menu labeled "Add Content"

 This is where all of your basic tools are housed. As pictured above, there is a drop down menu to navigate through the different categories. The "Basic elements" contain items you can use to layout the grid of your website, as well as add video elements with ease. You can place your own created content in these elements. If you are new to web design, or just have creativity block you can head over to "Ready-made" to gain access to already designed Headers, Content elements, and my personal favorite Footers because they aren't my favorite thing to design. All you have to do is drag and drop these items in the desired place on your canvas. 

Now on to the little tweaks and elements you can use within the site builder in order to expand your experience. There is a little switch in the right-hand column that says "Expert Mode". 

If you are pretty experienced in web design, or you just want to expand the amount of things you can manipulate, you can switch this mode and you will gain access to more complicated items. 

Also, in the same right-hand column towards the bottom, there is a Widget Menu where you can isolate an individual widget and make adjustments to it as needed. 

Now moving to the top of the page, there is a horizontal bar with measurements for the different sizes of electronic devices, since responsive design is vital to any great website. You can use this to make sure your website will be just as wonderful on any size screen. 

And finally at the top left corner there is the main function menu. This is where you can preview what your website looks like in a browser to check your progress. You can also export your site when you are finished and hit the undo button, or "Versions", when you make a mistake. 

Overall, I really liked this site builder. It is very easy to use, it provides essential tools and gives you options on how complicated you want to make things. I think that the builder could be organized a little better, with a more practical canvas shape because I was pretty overwhelmed by the wideness of it. More elements could also be added, but I think this is a great site for anyone to use to make a website with ease.