Web design

Web design is the design or designing of a web page, website or web application.

Contents

A brief history of web design

When the internet was first invented, web design consisted of a very basic markup language that included some formatting options, and the unique ability to link pages together using hyperlinks. It was this feature that characterized the web among other communication methods, and characterized web design among other design methods. Because of this unique behaviour of the world wide web, and the unique behaviour it encouraged in users, web design would prove to be unlike any other form of design before or since, with the possible exception of interactive CD-ROM design.

As the web and web design progressed, the markup language used to make it, known as HTML, became more complex and flexible. Things like tables, which could be used to display tabular information, were soon subverted for use as invisible layout devices. With the advent of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), table based layout is increasingly regarded as outdated. Database integration technologies such as server-side scripting (see PHP, ASP, JSP, and ColdFusion) and design standards like CSS further changed and enhanced the way the web was made.

The introduction of Macromedia Flash into an already interactivity-ready scene has further changed the face of the web, giving new power to designers and media creators, and offering new interactivity features to users.

Controversies

As in all professions, there are arguments on different ways of doing things. These are a few of the ongoing ones.

Liquid versus Fixed Layouts

Most web designers initially come from a graphic artist background in print, where the artist has absolute control over the size and dimensions of all aspects of the design. On the web however, the web designer has no control over several factors, especially the width of the browser window.

Many designers compensate for this by wrapping their entire webpage in a fixed width box, essentially limiting it to an exact pixel-perfect value, which is a fixed layout. Other designers say that this is bad because it ignores the preferences of the user, who might have their browser sized a specific way that they like best. These people propose a liquid layout, where the size of the webpage adjusts itself based on the size of the browser window.

Most designers make this decision of which style of layout to use on a case by case basis, depending on the needs and audience of the website.

Interesting note: AskFactMaster.Com is a liquid layout.

Flash

Macromedia Flash is a graphics animation program that's used to deliver animated and interactive content to the web. Many graphic artists like Flash because it gives them exact control over every part of the design, and anything can be animated and generally "jazzed up." There are many sites which forego HTML and are done entirely in Flash.

It's detractors claim that Flash websites tend to be poorly designed, and often use confusing and non-standard user-interfaces. Search engines cannot index Flash pages, which can prevent stores from having their products easily found. Finally Flash websites cannot take into account many usability features, such as respecting the browser's font size and allowing deep-linking, and they outright fail any accessibility tests for blind users using screen readers.

Due to these issues, many web designers do not consider Flash to be a valid solution for corporate or retail web sites. However the consensus tends to be that Flash is simply a tool, and like all tools it can be misused or applied for the wrong purpose.

CSS versus Tables

Back when Netscape Navigator 4 dominated the browser market, the only solution available for designers to lay out a web page was by using tables. Often even simple designs for a page would require dozens of tables nested in each other. Navigator 4 didn't support CSS to a usefull degree, so it simply wasn't used.

After the browser wars were over, and Internet Explorer dominated the market, designers started turning towards CSS as an alternate, better means of laying out their pages. CSS proponents say that tables should only be used for tabular data, not for layout. Using CSS instead of tables also returns HTML to a semantic markup, which helps bots and search engines understand what's going on in a web page.

One of the main points against CSS is that by relying on it exclusively you're essentially giving up on displaying a web page exactly the same across all browsers. Also Developing web sites in CSS is often a matter of trying to get the CSS to imitate a table-based layout, which makes some designers not see the point in struggling with CSS to begin with. Finally there are simply some features of a table-based design that CSS designers haven't found a way to duplicate, such as easy vertical positioning, and including a full-length footer at the bottom of an absolutely-positioned design.

Seven C's of website design

  • Context - Aesthetical and functional look and feel - traditional, hip, edgy, utilitarian, emotional - the how of site design. Color, humor, focus, graphics
  • Content - Any digital subject matter on the site - text, video, audio, and Graphics -- the what of site design.
  • Community - A feeling of membership in a group and a strong sense of Involvement - shared common interests. -- the why of site design.
  • Customization - The sites' ability to tailor itself to a user. Or to be personalized by each user -- the touch of site design.
  • Communication - Dialog between the site and the user -- the muscle of site design.
  • Connection - Extent of Formal Linkages Between the Site and Other Sites -- the networking of site design.
  • Commerce - The actual sale of goods and services on the site or the sale of the site itself -- the commerce of site design.

See also

External links

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