Envato Notes

How Adobe Muse Empowers Creatives to Build Websites Without Coding

Posted: 25 Jul 2013 09:23 PM PDT

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Are you more at home with Photoshop or Illustrator than a text editor full of code? Adobe have an app that will make you feel just as at home creating websites: Muse. Read on to learn more about the app, and meet ThemeForest’s new Muse Templates category.

Adobe are marketing Muse as Web design, decoded—an app that will let you create websites without writing a single line of code. Michael Clawson, an author on Webdesigntuts+, explains:

Adobe Muse is a web design application aimed at the non-coder. If you're a stranger to code, have never designed a webpage, come from a print background (but are familiar with applications such as Adobe Illustrator) Adobe Muse allows you to create straight-forward yet functional websites.

Marketplace Growth Team Officer Will Herring adds:

Despite some limitations, Muse offers enough flexibility to create great desktop, mobile and tablet experiences.

It’s part of the Adobe Creative Cloud which had 479,000 subscribers at the end of first quarter this year, and Adobe estimates 1.25 million subscribers by the end of 2013. Think of that as a potential market.

If you’re a creative with access to Creative Cloud, Muse may be your ticket to becoming a ThemeForest author.

About Muse: It’s Advantages and Limitations

Is Adobe Muse for everyone? What are its advantages and limitations? We recently caught up with Steve Harris (MuseThemes on ThemeForest) about why he decided to specialize in Muse Themes on the Marketplace.

Hi Steve. Why should I create my next website with Adobe Muse rather than WordPress?

Adobe Muse is targeted towards print focused designers, who don't have a knowledge of HTML/CSS (code). It allows you to build websites using an interface similar to InDesign, which is comfortable for users who have used Adobe software previously.

Muse templates are easily editable, so you can select or modify any element in the site and republish up to the web. WordPress templates are far more rigid in terms of major layout changes or structure. You could purchase several Muse templates, and select elements out of each and combine them into your own unique site. Muse also allows you to build tablet/mobile-specific layouts in a single working file.

Muse lacks functionality in comparison to WordPress – it's not an open source community, and it's not built on a system that supports blogging, ecommerce, or database driven features. You can however embed many 3rd party widgets to achieve added functionality.

Will it be easier for my non-technical clients to understand?

It will be easier for clients to understand, however they also need to understand that Muse has limitations. WordPress has a huge content management side, where site owners can make significant updates remotely. Muse doesn't feature in-context editing, but it's limited to text/image-only changes, and the site has to be Adobe hosted.

Clients who may have a better sense of visual design may appreciate working with Muse far more than technical users. Code is not accessible, and the layout is comfortable and similar to print applications.

Check the Muse Templates Category on ThemeForest

ThemeForest has a new category for Muse Templates. Here are a few of the best-selling themes.

NightLight | Parallax Muse Template

NightLight is an advanced single-page Adobe Muse template featurING Parallax Scrolling images and text, as well as unique mobile and tablet versions of the site. Use it to build your complete website, or simply get started learning Adobe Muse.

Dalton | Premium Adobe Muse Template

Dalton is a clean and modern Adobe Muse template featuring a complete mobile version as well as unique custom widgets with contemporary styling. It can be modified in every way to suit your individual tastes.

Timeline

This theme lets you capture all of the favorite moments from your life, from weddings, to parties, to your first house. It comes with both desktop and mobile versions, so you can easily view it on any device.

Learn How to Create Your Own Website with Adobe Muse

Have we whetted your appetite? Webdesigntuts+ have a series of Adobe Muse video tutorials that are suitable for beginners. Check them out!

Muse is one of Adobe's Creative Cloud applications aimed at building for the web. It specifically caters for designers with a print background, or those who simply don't have experience in coding. Muse's visual interface and tools allow users to design and deploy simple, static websites – so I'm going to show you exactly how that works.

It’s also worth exploring the Learn Adobe Muse CC channel on Adobe TV and MuseTheme’s training videos on using Muse Templates.

Have you used Adobe Muse? Are you considering using it? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.