Web design mainly refers to the front end (design) part of the website which also includes the task of writing the mark up. It broadly refers to different processes of production and maintenance of websites. Web Designers are entrusted the task of being up to date with web accessibility guidelines and have a comprehensive knowledge about the usability.
Different areas of web design are:
• Interface Design
• User experience design
• Search engine optimization
Tools:
Web designers use a variety of tools depending on what part of the development they are involved in , and although these are updated over time, the basic principles remain the same. The main technologies used are :W3C, HTML, CSS3etc or various WYSIWYG editing softwares. They might also use various markup validators to make sure the website conforms to various web accessibility guidelines.
Types:
There are two types of generated website types:
These websites use static webpages for every page of the website. They are considerably faster and more secure since they don’t require any server to generate any content. Because of these advantages, they are becoming more popular nowadays.
2. Dynamic Websites:
These webpages are generated on the fly and use server side technology to generate web pages. Most of the website today uses this technology.
Responsive Web Design:
Responsive Web Design (RWD) is an approach where it provides the functionality to the website to be viewed on used according to the specific device its being accessed in. Recently, due to the change in types of devices that people use to access websites like smartphones, tablets, etc, the amount of mobile traffic has increased to more than half of the total internet traffic and this makes RWD an essential element of web design.
Standard strategies to be kept in mind while developing RWD:
• Flexible Layout: The usage of proportional sizes to fit to each web page. you can additionally use new CSS3 modules like grid layout, flex box and more.
• Flexible Images and Media: Using CSS to avoid pictures or media overflow out in their containing factors.
• Media Queries: The use of the CSS3 media queries module to hit upon media features like display decision and to reply thus with CSS.
The internet is dynamic and ever changing. It is the drive behind most of the fastest growing industries in the world today. So how should a properly designed website look and feel like? Here are the top principles:
i. User Always Comes First:
Although it is your website, it is the general public which uses your website. Your website must be designed to appeal to them in the most pleasing manner. The more actions a user is able to perform on your website, the closer you are of reaching your goals. Hence, understanding your user base is paramount. What are their needs? What are they interested in? The more detailed the profile of the user, the more effective the web design can be.
ii. Sometimes less is more:
Nowadays keeping the website as simple as possible is essential. Users don’t have a lot of time to waste. Therefore, if the information they are looking for isn’t available on your website within the first few minutes of their search, they’ll surely look for it elsewhere. So don’t bombard your website with media and images, and convey what you are about in the most simplest and attractive of forms.
The most time consuming but effective activity of web designing for the best results is to get acclimatized with the latest trends as soon as possible. Web designing is ever changing dynamic field and keeping up with the changing trends is essential as well as time consuming.
iv. Testing, Testing and More Testing:
Effective web designing requires constant testing and adjustments. This process is time consuming and requires dedication but the end results are better user engagement, conversion and better lead generation. This is the aim of every business and can never be ignored.
Smaller organizations may have one or two persons who are responsible for programming and designing the visual aspects of the website alone while larger organizations may have a team of designers concentrating on the designing part alone.
Although the term web development has a broad meaning and may refer to everything included in developing a website for the internet, in the professional landscape, it mainly refers to the non-design aspects of creating a website, namely writing the markup and coding. Throughout the recent years, web development as an industry has beengrowingrapidly. This is mainly because, many business are taking their business online which requires special and personalized website creation and also the presence of various WYSIWG web development softwares like Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Visual Studio etc. Web development tools like BerkeleyDB, GlassFish, LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack Perl/Placketc are open source which has also helped bring down development costs.An ever growing set of tools and technologies have helped developers build more dynamic and interactive websites.
Web developers are now able to deliver applications as web services which were traditionally only available as applications on a desk-based computer. Applications like Google Docs, Adobe Creative Cloud etc allow users to access these applications remotely instead of being tied down to specific workstations.Web application development is becoming more and more complex with each passing day. A vast knowledge base in the areas of security, UI design, and integration, programming languages, backend databases and more are required for developing the perfect web application. A web app that is to use by the masses must be intuitive, easy to figure out and extremely efficient.
Ecommerce Web Development:
Ecommerce web development is an example of dramatic transformation in communication and commerce led by web development. Online auction-sites such as eBay have changed the way consumers find and purchase goods and services and online retailers such as Amazon.com and Buy.com (among many others) have transformed the shopping and bargain-hunting experience for many consumers.Ecommerce website platforms are divided into three categories:
• Open Source
• Hosted
• Hosted Shopping Cart
These platforms help you host anywhere. It is the favorite choice of developers everywhere.
Eg: Magento, OsCommerce, Opencart etc.
2) Hosted Ecommerce Platform:
A nominal monthly fee is charged for using this service. It is also much more secure than using an open source platform. It supports the use of an ecommerce system with support to web hosting. Shopify ,Highwire, Bigcommerceetc use this technology for their websites.
3) Hosted Ecommerce Shopping Carts:
This platform provides hosting facilities of your choice. Also integration of a Content Management System (CMS) is allowed. Some of the important softwares that are included are Foxy cart, DPD, Digital Delivery Applications, and many more.
Some current web development trends:
• Improved Mobile View:
Mobile traffic has effectively exploded within the recent years and having a website which looks good on a mobile device platform is extremely important.More number of people use the internet more number of times via their mobile devices rather than through their desktop or laptop PCs.Hence, recent web development trends have shifted towards focusing on developing web pages which are pleasing to the user while accessed on the go on a mobile device.
• Motion UI:
Motion UI is used in creating animations. It has made the whole process of transitions trouble free and well ordered. This saves a lot of streaming time and apps/sites function well even with those animated components.
• Next Gen IDE:
Cloud based IDE is quicker, responsive and come with a huge set of tools at their disposal. They provide an ideal environment for developers to work in. It is the next generation solution that developers are currently hesitant to adapt to but will hopefully catch on in time.
A clear indication of an attractive website is the presence of audio visual media instead of just plain boring text. Large number of websites uses audio, images and snippets of video to convey information than just chunks of big plain old text. Multimedia elements can also shareable via social media making the website self-promoting. But the caveat is that overuse of such elements will make the website load slowly and make it cumbersome for users to visit, especially from areas with relatively low internet connection speeds. Web developers must strike a balance between efficiency and attractiveness.
Long scrolling web designs went out of fashion long back to be replaced by single web page designs. These designs load webpages faster and in one go and are more efficient and have lower overhead, on the device as well as the user.
Similar to web designing, large organizations may employ teams of web developers in the hundreds who will follow standard techniques like the agile model while developing websites. While, for smaller organizations may only require a permanent or contracting website developer. Web development is a collaborative effort between departments rather than a single monolithic entity.
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