Web Design
Web design is the skill of creating presentations of content (usually hypertext or hypermedia) that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by way of a Web browser or other Web-enable software like Internet television clients, microblogging clients and RSS readers. The intent of web design is to create a web site—a collection of electronic documents and applications that reside on a web server/servers and present content and interactive features/interfaces to the end user in the form of Web pages once requested. Such elements as text, but-mapped images (GIFs, JPEGs) and forms can be placed on the page using HTML/XHTML/XML tags. Displaying more complex media (vector graphics, animations, videos, and sounds) requires plug-ins such as Adobe Flash, QuickTime, Java run-time environment, etc. Plug-ins are also embedded into Web pages by using HTML/XHTML tags.
HTML
Improvements in browsers’ compliance with W3C standards prompted a widespread acceptance and usage of XHTML/XML in conjunction with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to position and manipulate web page elements and objects. Latest standards and proposals aim at leading to browsers’ ability to deliver a wide variety of content and accessibility options to the client possibly without employing plug-ins.
Web page classification
Typically, web pages are classified as static or dynamic. Static pages don’t change content and layout without every request unless someone (a webmaster or a programmer) manually updates the page themselves. A simple HTML page is an example of static content.
Dynamic pages adapt their content and/or appearance depending on end-user’s input/interaction or changes in the computing environment (user, time, database modifications, etc) Content can be changed on the client side (end-user’s computer) by using client-side scripting languages to alter DOM elements. Dynamic content is often compiled on the server utilizing sever-side scripting languages. Both approaches are usually used in complex applications.
With growing specialization in the information technology field there is a strong tendency to draw a clear line between web design and web development. Web design is a kind of graphic design intended for development and styling of objects of the Internet’s information environment to provide them with high-end consumer features and aesthetic qualities. The offered definition separates web design from web programming, emphasizing the functional features of a web site, as well as positioning web design as a kind of graphic design.
The Art of Web Design
The process of designing web pages, web sites, web applications or multimedia for the Web may utilize multiple disciplines, such as animation, authoring, communication design, corporate identity, graphic design, human-computer interaction, information architecture, interaction design, marketing, photography, search engine optimization and typography. They also involve and are made up of:
* Markup languages (such as HTML, XHTML and XML)
* Style sheet languages (such as CSS and XSL)
* Client-side scripting (such as JavaScript)
* Server-side scripting (such as PHP and ASP)
* Database technologies (such as MySQL and PostgreSQL)
* Multimedia technologies (such as Flash and Silverlight)
Accessible Web Pages through Web Design
To be accessible, web pages and sites must conform to certain accessibility principles. These accessibility principles are known as the WCAG when talking about content. These can be grouped into the following main areas and requirements:
* Use semantic markup that provides a meaningful structure to the document (i.e. web page)
* Semantic markup also refers to semantically organizing the web page structure and publishing web services description accordingly so that they can be recognized by other web services on different web pages. Standards for semantic web are set by IEEE
* Use a valid markup language that conforms to a published DTD or Schema
* Provide text equivalents for any non-text components (e.g. images, multimedia)
* Use hyperlinks that make sense when read out of context. (e.g. avoid “Click Here”)
* Don’t use frames
* Use CSS rather than HTML tables for layout
* Author the page so that when the source code is read line-by-line by user agents (such as screen readers) it remains intelligible. (Using tables for design will often result in information that is not.)
However, W3C permits an exception where tables for layout either make sense when linearized or an alternate version (perhaps linearized) is made available. Website accessibility is also changing as it is impacted by Content Management Systems that allow changes to be made to webpages without the need of obtaining programming language knowledge. It is very important that several different components of Web development and interaction can work together in order for the Web to be accessible to people with disabilities. These components include:
* Content such as the information in a web page of web application, this includes natural information such as text, images and sounds, or code and markup that defines the structure and presentation.
* Web browsers, media players and other user agents
* Assistive technology which includes screen readers, alternative keyboards, switches, scanning software, etc.
* Users’ knowledge, experiences and in some cases, adaptive strategies using the Web
* Developers such as designers, coders, authors, etc
* Authoring tools such as software that creates Websites
* Evaluation tools such as Web accessibility evaluation tools, HTML validators, CSS validators etc.
Web design for your target audience
Defining the audience is a key step in the website planning process. The audience is the group of people who are expected to visit your website – the market being targeted. These people will be viewing the website for a specific reason and it is important to know exactly what they are looking for when they visit the site. A clearly defined purpose or goal of the site as well as an understanding of what visitors want to do or feel when they come to your site will help to identify the target audience.
Upon considering who is most likely to need or use the content, a list of characteristics common to the users that are often evaluated:
Taking into account the characteristics of the audience will allow an effective website to be created that will deliver the desired content to the target audience.