Web design involves creating the front end of a web page using HTML or XHTML and CSS. Challenges include browser inconsistencies and designing for different monitor sizes and settings. Database-driven languages can add interactivity. The possibilities for web design are limitless with embedded technologies.
Web design is used as a general term to describe any of the various activities involved in creating a web page. More specifically, it refers to jobs focused on building the front end of a web page.
The web is made up of a myriad of pages, which present information using different technologies and linked together by hyperlinks. There are two basic aspects to any web page found on the Internet. The former is a presentation that the user interacts with, usually visually, while the latter is a backend that includes information for non-human browsers.
The basic markup language used to tell a browser how to present information is called HyperText Markup Language (HTML). A stricter version of HTML known as eXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) is also widely used. Using HTML or XHTML, a web designer is able to tell a browser what a web page should look like. In recent years, there has been a push towards separating a web page’s underlying structure (using HTML) from the site’s visual presentation (using Cascading Style Sheets or CSS). This approach has a number of important short- and long-term benefits and is gaining popularity over time.
From a technical point of view, the act of web design can be quite difficult. Unlike more traditional print media, HTML has a number of variable factors. To begin with, not all browsers interpret HTML according to the standards created by the standards-setting body, the World Wide Web Consortium, also known as W3. This means that while a page will look the way the designer intended in one browser, it may look completely different in another. There are a number of fixes and workarounds to try and work around browser-specific bugs, but it’s a tenuous affair at best.
Another major limiting factor is the plethora of formats in which a site can be viewed. While graphic designers know exactly how big the piece of paper they are printing on will be, a web designer has to take into account different monitor sizes, different display settings, and even browsers for blind users. Together, these concerns often leave a design professional struggling to incorporate enough dynamism to make a web page appealing across a range of browser sizes, while creating a layout that is static enough to allow for the use of necessarily fixed-sized images and other components.
In addition to XHTML and CSS, designers often use a number of database-driven languages to allow for more dynamism and interactivity on their websites. While useful with smaller sites, such languages become a virtual necessity on any site that has huge amounts of data .
The possibilities for web design are virtually limitless, even if at one point they were quite limited by the confines of the browser itself. With the advent and flexibility of embedded technologies, these boundaries have all but been removed, allowing for a versatility and dynamism that defies the imagination of anyone interested in designing for the Internet.
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