What Is Web Design?

What is web design? I have been reading and researching the meaning of web design, some say it’s a creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity. Other says it is used as a general term to describe any of the various tasks involved in creating a web page. The web consists of numerous pages, presenting information using different technologies and linked together called hyperlinks. There are two basic aspects to any web page found on the Internet. The first is a presentation that the user interacts with, usually visually, while the second is a back-end that includes information for non-human browsers.

Languages that are used: 1. HTML – HyperText Markup Language 2. XHTML – eXtensible HyperText Markup Language HTML tells a browser how to present information while XHTML is the stricter version. Using both languages a web designer is able to tell a browser how a web page should appear. HTML has a number of variable factors. To begin with, not all browsers interpret HTML, it may appear completely differently in another. While graphic designers know exactly how large the piece of paper they are printing on will be, a person must account for different monitor sizes, different display settings, and even browsers for non-sighted surfers! Combined, these concerns often leave to struggling incorporate enough dynamism to make a page attractive on a range of browser sizes, while creating a layout static enough to allow for the use of images and other necessarily fixed-size components.

In addition to XHTML and CSS, web designers often use a number of database driven languages to allow for more dynamism and interactivity on their websites. While useful with smaller sites, database driven languages become a virtual necessity on any site presenting huge amounts of data. Some of the most popular languages include ASP, PHP, and ColdFusion. Macromedia’s Flash also allows for a different sort of web design and is very popular amongst many people. The possibilities are virtually limitless, although at one point they were quite constrained by the boundaries of the browser itself. With the advent and flexibility of Flash and other embedded technologies, these boundaries have been all but removed, allowing for a versatility and dynamism that challenges the imagination of anyone interested in this field. Read the rest of this entry »

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Graphic Design Elements: Time Following

Time management is an important part of the graphic designer’s work because no matter how clever you might be at design, if you are unable to get the aims completed on time, there will be consequences. Most clients might just hire someone else. This is why time tracking might just be the most principal thing to do in order to conserve those customers happy and coming back to you. Graphic design can be a very tedious process and you might need all the help you can get from outside resources. This is why you cannot rely on your mind alone to keep a track of time frames – you will get more stressed and hence more confused and will not be able to do your best at the actual designing.

This is why it is effective to just write things down as soon as you receive instructions from a distinguishing employer or client. Don’t just write the cutoff date and the necessary tidbits but jot down proper detailed instructions. You will be surprised at how quickly you may forget them otherwise. Even things as simple as using a distinguishing font can be forgotten in a matter of minutes because soon you will be concentrating on other jobs from other clients and the specifications might get mixed up. Don’t leave these things to memory and you will be fine. Make use of diary at the least to write down these specifics as you receive them from the client. Making use of Microsoft Excel will also be a good idea since those spreadsheets will help you hold everything in columns and you can highlight influential things. You can also make use of color coding to group similar items or to highlight critical cutoffs. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Pulse of Technology – Keeping Pace With Continuous Change – November, 1998

Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel Corporation first postulated the now-famous Moore’s law in the nineteen seventies. Moore’s law states that the processing or computational power of silicon chips will double every twenty-four months, while pricing for these chips will halve in the same time period. This law has remained relatively constant for over twenty years. We are now approaching a time when this seemingly immutable law is becoming outdated. In fact, new silicon chips are doubling in power; with new chips coming online within twelve to eighteen months, while pricing is being halved in even less time. What has happened to the underlying technology that drives these silicon chips, and what are the market forces that have dictated rapidly declining prices?

There are several factors that lead to the inexorable increase in processing power, just as these same factors exert a downward pressure on prices. Let’s look at several of these factors in the context of hardware developments, software developments and the rise of the Internet as the ubiquitous network that many people predicted as being necessary to make computers universally acceptable in daily life.
Hardware Development.

When Intel was founded by ex-Fairchild developers, the mid-range computer, as personified by the DEC PDP series, Data General machines, IBM 32/34 series and the first HP boxes was the emerging standard in the computer industry. Machines of this time period were often viewed as departmental machines that were required to perform quick, hands-on computing applications that were free from the centralized (i.e., mainframe computing environment) I.T. staffs of the time. Read the rest of this entry »

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