What is Web Design?

Web Design/Development

Sometimes referred to web authoring, web design is about creating web pages that make up a web site for use on the Internet and also in company Intranets.

Web design not only involves using standard design concepts but can often involve a substantial amount of technical and programming work. This means that a successful web designer needs to have good technical skills as well as good design skills.

Web pages on the Internet are created in HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language) and increasingly XHTML, (Extensible HyperText Mark-up Language). HTML and XHTML can be created by hand in a simple text editor such as note pad but web designers often use authoring tools to speed up and simplify the design and building process.

Another major part of web design involving meeting with other people and discussing their ideas and what they want from their websites. For example, a web designer make visit a client who only has a rough idea of what they want but by discussing the available options together they can draw up a basic design.

Things a Web Designer needs to consider

A web designer must consider acceptability, does the design allow the site to be access on a variety of machines by a variety of different people, some who may have disabilities.

• Will the site display correctly on a Web TV?
• Will the chosen colours cause problems for those who may be colour blind?
• Will the site display correctly on a mobile phone?
• Will the site work with screen reading software for the visually impaired?

Useful Links

http://www.w3.org/

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential.

http://webxact.watchfire.com/

Validator that checks pages for accessibility standards

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

Web Pages That Suck learn usability and good Web design by looking at bad Web design