Last Updated on February 10, 2016
Website design has become a common activity today owing to its massive number of active and inactive websites. Maybe I should conclude that web design is one of the easiest IT skills. A typical website could only require basic HTML, CSS and some JavaScript skills which are not too brainstorming like other IT skills ,Java, C#, PHP etc.
Today, one could design a personal, corporate website with little or no knowledge in either in HTML or CSS. There are free and open source web applications usually developed with PHP that allows one to leverage the benefits in designing websites usually with drag and drops. This technology has removed the burden of cracking your brain to learning web design skills , HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP. An essential requirement is that you should know how use the internet, basic computer operations; How to use the keyboard to type, How to connect to the internet, understanding archiving files (zip, rar), Identifying HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript file types etc.
Now, talking about Web Design Tools to designing websites within minutes! I have come about with few web tools that could help a beginner in web design creates some awesome web pages within limited time. Some of these tools are CMS (Content Management System) while others are desktop applications. CMS per se is a web application that delivers requests in real-time. It allows you to post, create pages at the back-end and display the result at the front-end.
The tools are below:
WordPress
WordPress is one of the popular web application that creates websites with little or no knowledge in web design skills. One of the reasons for its popularity is that WordPress was only used a blog design tool just like Blogger but it was later skewed to popular demands of allowing large web pages.
WordPress is managed in two versions ; wordpress.com and wordpress.org. The wordpress.com allows you to create pages mostly blog posts within their predefined sub-domain just the same way Blogger do. It is Free but some features require subscriptions like themes, plugins etc. I have created an a-z series in creating blog sites with wordpress.com. But in WordPress.org, everything is done in a customized way. That is , you visit WordPress, get a fresh copy of the application usually archived, install it in your local machine and customize it.
WordPress has a repository for themes, plugins. At the time of this writing, its current build is 4.4.2. With wordpresss, you could design large websites of any kind. It could be school portal, blog site, business site, eCommerce sites like Aliexpress, ebay, Konga, Dating sites, Forums etc. One major advantage of wordpress is its easiness to learn.
Joomla
Joomla is a great CMS tool. It has become popular with over 50 million downloads. You could do everything you can with wordpress in Joomla but it has not been known with blogging. It also have a larger repository for its extensions. It supports templates, modules and plugins. Unlike WordPress, Modules in Joomla can be referred to as widget in WordPress.
Joomla is a really a great take when it comes to simplicity in its web design system. Its current version is Joomla! 3.5 Beta 2. You can simply identify a Joomla designed websites when pointing at the URL. All its pages are targeted at the index.php file. For example, When you click on Contact us Menu in Example website, you will see www.example.com/index.php/contact-us instead of conventional url www.example.com/contact-us. That is one of uniqueness in Joomla. Also, when installing joomla, it has an option for sample data. This sample data is a demo site that serves as a walk-through to designing your own site. You can delete them once you have mastered joomla or you could edit the contents and replace them with your. Joomla also have two versions, J2.x and J3.x. Well, you should be confused about these versions anyway. To get started with Joomla, just visit Joomla and get a fresh download. Ebay, Peugeot, Maven Tech use Joomla.
Drupal
Drupal is also one of CMS tools to creating websites. I may admit that Drupal might not be too popular just like WordPress and Joomla. Drupal is great for designing websites be it large or small contents. I have told myself to delve into using Drupal just because i felt high security measures in recent builds 8.0.3. Drupal may look hard to get accustomed to but i will guarantee you that it is a great web design tool. It supports cool documentations, developers community, Extensions (Themes and Plugins) and also Jobs for the tech guys.
You could get started by download drupal package from their official website . It is free and open source. You can install it in your local machine for development just the same way you did with wordpress and Joomla.
WYSIWYG Web Builder 
WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get”. It means whenever you click on “Text”, you get “Text”, if you drag and drop “Buttin”, “Button will be shown to you”. WYSIWYG Web Builder is a desktop application that allows us to create websites with drag and drop features. You could create amazing sites without knowing HTML or CSS as long as you know how to work with a desktop applications.
WYSIWYG Web Builder features Responsive designs with HTML5 and CSS3, Layout grids, Site Manager that allows you to quickly manage your current web project,page properties that allows you to edit any dragged element (Textbox, text, images, Slideshow, Media etc) and a Toolbar with categorized menus. All the activities in WYSIWYG Web Builder is real-time. You can preview and publish your website.
WYSIWYG Web Builder has free and premium version. You can visit their official website for an option.
Other web design tools are;
Artisteer
DreamWeaver
KompoZer
Simple Site
Wix
