Web design encompasses a variety of disciplines and skills in the creation and maintenance of web sites. These disciplines include web development, graphic design, usability, and databases. Web design also covers social media. The various disciplines of web design cover web graphic design; web user interface design; content writing, including informative text and hyperlink-able links; visual design, such as layout and typography; user experience design; and Search Engine Optimization. In addition, web design also encompasses business techniques, such as search engine marketing, e-commerce, and advertising.
Web graphic designers create images and other media using a variety of software tools and methods. Web developers create software programs to run on a web server so that the program can be downloaded by users. Both web developers and designers specialize in particular areas. Web developers usually specialize in creating the software that web browsers use to view web pages. They can update existing web sites or write new web pages.
Web graphic designers are people who create the visual aspects of a web site. These people are involved in all areas of web design. Web graphic design includes using photographs, illustrations, clip arts, video, and text to create a visual experience for users of the internet. Web developers are responsible for coding the applications that interact with the information on a web site. Web developers usually write the HTML code that enables the computer to display the site’s content. CSS is the language of styles that determine how the application’s content will be displayed when the page is viewed using a browser.
Usability designers look at issues such as how users will navigate the information on the site, how easy it is to understand, and whether the site is usable. User research is the term used to describe the process of collecting information about potential customers, clients, and users. Web developers, usability designers, and usability managers all work together during the development of a website to create the best possible user experience.
Web developers often use web design tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, and HTML to build the overall layout of a web page. Web designers often use programming languages like PHP, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, or Java to create the software that runs on a server. Web designers often use css, images, videos, and flash for adding interactivity to a site. Web developers can also use databases and Java Script to create interactive elements on the pages of a site.
Web designers often have a few goals for their work. One goal is to create an attractive website that will increase the visitors to the site. Another goal is to create a website that has functioning features that solve the most common problems that users encounter. A third goal for web designers is to provide excellent customer service to both current customers and future customers. Web designers often use several different techniques to create these three goals.
