Web Design
Considerations in Making a Website
In a nutshell, when we speak of web design, we speak of the overall layout and theme of the website. It includes not only the layout of the home page, but all other web pages within that website, interconnected by links directing you to other pages within the site itself, by the same website creator. Web design is not something that you would do on a whim, not an impulsively created art work or masterpiece. To engage in designing your individual web pages is to work out a plan that requires thinking and analysis to give an effect that is altogether coherent and pleasant to web users worldwide. If you analyze it, it seems the elements of web design would be the same as the elements of web creation: you take special consideration of the website purpose, the target audience and the website framework, among others, all of which would result in a deliberate choice pertaining to web design.
It is of no moment whether you go for high-budgeted, paid professional services to complete your web design, or for the services of a free website builder in either case you, the website creator and owner, will have to truly, madly, deeply (to borrow that pop song phrase) conceptualize. When youcreate a website its design as a whole, or the design of each and every web page, would have to be thought out deliberately as part of the grand plan. The grand plan? Your website, of course!
What are utilized as part of your web design? There are hundreds probably growing to thousands by the day of elements involved in web design.
To give you a birds eye view of what is involved, consider this:
Website design involves authoring language, an application development system (computer language) that functions primarily in the creation of programs, databases and other aspects of computer-aided instruction.
Design also entails use of animation, or integrating effects for icons, graphics, pictures, page or site transitions, to give "life" and "energy" to your web pages. It makes your web pages dynamic, in contrast to being static. Without effects hence without dynamism or "action" your web pages will merely be text pages no different from document files. Animation entails the use of software programs like Adobe Flash in creating awesome animations that will create great effects in your web pages.
Web design involves typography, or simply the appearance of texts in the form of fonts, characters, spacing and other textual elements on the web pages. This is important because your web users will definitely be particular with how the words, phrases, sentences and articles appear in the web page. How can they possibly appreciate what the website is all about if they cannot read a thing on the website? So the appearance of text really does count a lot when you work on your web design.
Website design, of course, also deals with graphic design, which refers to the integration of text , typography and graphic elements including but not limited to icons, logos, photos, objects, effects and animations in your web pages.
A highly technical aspect of web design is the matter of programming languages like markup language and style sheet languages. "Markup languages" refer to a computer coding system that specifies the layout and style of a document, including the more popular HTML and XML. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. HTML documents are text files that contain two parts: content that is meant to be displayed on a computer screen in the web pages or other computer programs; and tags or markup, which are encoded information that directs the text format on the screen but are not visible to the web users. This language provides the commands to guide or direct on-screen activities, like when you point to and click on an icon, or a certain text (the hyperlink), and it brings you to another web page, or prompts the playing of music, or a slideshow, or a video related to that icon or hyperlink clicked. XML, on the other hand, is essentially similar to HTML, the difference being that XML or Extensible Markup Language, is the one which functions to categorize or classify information entered on the web page. The complex systems within which XML can work makes it the preferred programming language especially for business websites for easy indexing and inventory of products and information.
The extent of your knowledge in web design will play an important role when you make a determination of whether you will go with professional web designers or professional web design teams in creating your website, or if you will avail of the free services of free website builders that are available on the world wide web. But of course, as with everything, you cannot make an informed decision about it unless and until you have a working knowledge on the basics of website design.
Related Articles:
Framework
Objectives
Website Content
Target Audience
Web Hosting
Web Maintenance
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