Web design

Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are shaped by the web designer to produce the page seen on the web browser.^[1] Web designers utilize markup language, most notably HTML for structure and CSS for presentation to develop pages that can be read by web browsers.

As a whole, the process of web design includes conceptualization, planning, producing, post-production, research, advertising as well as media control that is applied to the pages within the site by the designer or group of designers with a specific purpose. The site itself can be divided into its main page, also known as the home page, which cites the main objective as well as highlights of the site's daily updates; which also contains hyperlinks that functions to direct viewers to a designated page within the site's domain.

Best practices

Ideally, web designers should strive to write code that is valid HTML and CSS. In doing so it makes it easier to correct problems, edit pages, or update pages. HTML and CSS are the fundamental technologies for building Web pages: HTML (html and xhtml) for structure, CSS for style and layout, including WebFonts.^[2] By separating the presentation style of documents from the content of documents, CSS simplifies Web authoring and site maintenance.^[3] For example, having a separate CSS file allows for aesthetic changes to be made to the entire site rather than to just a single page. If CSS rules are included within a single HTML page, changes would have to be made to each and every page. The reasoning is that HTML should only be used for raw content and CSS be used to manipulate the content for aesthetic style.

HTML/XHTML

XHTML is currently the most widely used standard among browsers, despite the fact that the new standard, HTML 5, is available but only supported by the most current browsers. XHTML is a family of current and future document types and modules that reproduce, subset, and extend HTML 4.^[4] It extends HTML 4 by utilizing Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is a language that is designed to carry data, not display it.^[5] By combining HTML with XML it retains the flexibility of HTML but allows for cleaner, well-formed coding. What this means is that a web page can now have dynamic, interactive content as XHTML is actually an XML application.

Changes and updates

Initial website designs normally need small tweaks and changes after they go live, but major updates and re-designs may be undertaken periodically.

See also

• Cross-browser
• Cybermosaic
• Interaction design
• Progressive Enhancement
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• User interface design
• Web 2.0
• Web application framework
• Web colors
• Web safe fonts
• Web usability
• Website architecture
• Website awards
• Website builder
• Website wireframe

References

1. ^ http://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/web/resources/cms/web.html
2. ^ http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/
3. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/REC-CSS2-20110607/
4. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801/
5. ^ http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp

External links

• Web design and development at the Open Directory Project
• W3C consortium for web standards