Web Design is a broad term that defines the way in which content is displayed to the end user through the World Wide Web using a web browser. 3b will create the customers website and host the site on one of our specified web servers. This is an involved process where the customer’s input will be invaluable. During this stage of design the following factors will be discussed…
- Requirements – Web site design crosses multiple disciplines of multiple information systems, information technology, marketing and communication design. The web site is an information system whose components are sometimes classified as front-end and back-end. The observable content (e.g. page layout, user interface, graphics, text, audio) is known as the front-end. The back-end comprises the organization and efficiency of the source code, invisible scripted functions, and the server-side components that process the output from the front-end.
- Environment – Web design incorporates multiple intersections between many layers of technical and social understanding, demanding creative direction, design element structure, and some form of social organisation. Differing goals and methods resolve effectively in successful deployment of education, software and team management during the design process. However, many competing and evolving platforms and environments challenge acceptance, completion and continuity of every design product.
- Collaboration – Early web design was less integrated with companies’ advertising campaigns, customer transactions, extranets, intranets and social networking. Web sites were seen largely as static online brochures or database connection points, disconnected from the broader scopes of a business or project. Many web sites are still disconnected from the broader project scope. As a result, many web sites are needlessly difficult to use, indirect in their way of communicating, and suffer from’ disconnected’ or ineffective bureaucratic information architecture.
- Form Versus Function – A web developer may pay more attention to how a page looks while neglecting other copywriting and search engine optimisation functions such as the readability of text, the ease of navigating the site, or how easily the visitors are going to find the site. As a result, the designers may end up in disputes where some want more decorative graphics at the expense of keyword-rich text, bullet lists, and text links. Assuming a false dichotomy that form and function are mutually exclusive overlooks the possibility of integrating multiple disciplines for a collaborative and synergistic solution. In many cases form follows function. Because some graphics serve communication purposes in addition to aesthetics, how well a site works may depend on the graphic design ideas as well as the professional writing considerations. When using a lot of graphics, or sending a lot of instructions to the end client computer, a web page may load slowly, often irritating the user. This has become less of a problem as the internet has evolved with high-speed internet and the use of vector graphics. However there is still an ongoing engineering challenge to increase bandwidth and an artistic challenge to minimize the amount of graphics and their file sizes. This challenge is compounded since increased bandwidth encourages more graphics with larger file sizes.
- Layout types – Layout refers to the dimensioning of content in a device display, and the delivery of media in a content related stream. Web design layouts result in visual content frameworks: these frameworks can be fixed, they can use units of measure that are relative, or they can provide fluid layout with proportional dimensions.
Proportional, liquid and hybrid layout are also referred to as dynamic design. Hybrid layout incorporates any combination of fixed, proportional or fluid elements within (or pointing to) a single page. The hybrid web design framework is made possible by W3C. If any layout does not appear as it should, it is very likely that it does not conform to standard design principles, or that those standards conflict with standard layout elements. Current knowledge of standards is essential to effective hybrid design.
The earliest web pages used fixed layouts without exception. In many business pages fixed layouts are preferred today as they easily contain static tabled information. Fixed layout enforces device display convention, as viewers must set their display to at least a certain width to easily view content. This width can include display of corporate logos, cautions, advertisements and any other target content. Design frameworks for fixed layout may need to include coding for multiple display devices.
Hybrid design maintains most static content control, but is adapted to textual publishing, and for readers, to conventional (printed) display. Hybrid layouts are generally easy on the eye and are found on most sites that distribute traditional images and text to readers. For some sites, hybrid design makes an otherwise cold text column appear warm and balanced. A good example of hybrid layout is WordPress, where liquid design is now optional, and movie and auditory media is stretching the envelope.
Fluid design is useful where content is delivered to an ‘unknown device’ population. Appropriate liquid code displays images, text and spaces proportional to display size. Someone with a handheld can see view and interact with the same content as someone using a large desktop monitor. However, scaling of content for a variety of devices has more recently evolved with modern web browsers, allowing users to see the same layout across all devices.
Layout concerns – With the coming of numerous monitor sizes, “fluid” web sites are becoming less common. The result is that fluid layouts look “old” because they were typically used more in the early days of the Internet. In dealing with font layout a static core cannot be escaped and often anchors most page content. However, as device manufacturers adopt new standards, viewers notice a wider spectrum of content and a greater interaction between and through content. For the World Wide Web Consortium drawing up tomorrow’s layout conventions, new media types and methods are increasingly in the mix. It is a true double axiom that ‘content is all about layout’, and ‘layout is all about content’. We could say that layout is what designers squeeze into available technology, content is the culture manifested in the layout. Space is the envelope holding layout and content together. Space communicates style to the target population. Understanding how to adapt space to this layout-content relationship is essential to web design. Every design’s survivability depends on its sensitivity to emerging technology and immediate acceptance depends on the layout or presentation of that content. On every page, no content is more susceptible to changes and variations in standards, than space. While the professional designer casually admits that 90 percent of design code is used to adapt space, most of his current work deploys spatial manipulations being used to actively reshape Internet communication.
A common misconception among designers is to assume their layout is liquid because initial space and text container widths are in percents. However, their ‘liquid’ framework, while adhering to focused conventions, failed to manage graphic content. A subsequent edit placing a large image on the page, destroys the page appearance. When managing a design framework, it is critical that layout address content, convention and user interaction.