.svg)
.svg)
In many ways, web design goes hand in hand with marketing. Many experienced marketers frequently discuss how important it is, how much it costs, where to get it…these are all pertinent topics and questions. But few people actually take the time to explain exactly what web design involves.
As a quick preface: you’ve probably heard the two terms web design and web development used together frequently.
The two definitely do go together, as all websites require some work in both areas to be fully functional and streamlined.
So…what does a web designer do?
These three “languages” are the backbone of most websites, and are the three biggest tools in a web designer’s toolbox. They’re all technically “languages,” although HTML and CSS are not technically considered to be true programming languages.
HTML (Hyper Text markup Language) is a set of “markup” tags that are responsible for structuring all the various elements of a webpage. It designates headers, footers, paragraphs, links, images, and everything in between. HTML is what search engine crawlers “read” when they index your website.
Proper HTML is critical to a professional, functioning website. HTML mistakes will almost universally result in visual anomalies on a website, apparent even to users. At worst, improper HTML can essentially break an entire website.
You can think of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as supplements to HTML. CSS is responsible for the styling of HTML elements – in other words, CSS controls how website elements look to end users.
For example, HTML uses the < p > tag to designate paragraphs, or general body text. Using CSS, a designer can make all text designated as a < p > element a certain color, a certain font size, a certain font type, and so on.
CSS can be very simple and accessible in the context of small, static websites, but can quickly grow to thousands of lines of code when dealing with bigger, more complex websites.
JavaScript is yet another supplementary language to HTML and CSS. It’s considered fairly easy to learn, as far as programming languages go. JavaScript also straddles the line between web developer and web designer.
To put it very simply, JavaScript allows for the enhanced manipulation of website elements. HTML and CSS are not necessarily “programming” languages, in that they essentially serve just to structure and style web pages. You can achieve some semblance of functionality with them, like causing an element to change color when it’s hovered over, but JavaScript is required for anything beyond that.
JavaScript gives designers advanced control over the elements of a website. For example, designers can use JavaScript to define that “when the user does X, Y will happen,” where Y is a functional complexity that can’t be handled by simple HTML and CSS.
A very basic usage of JavaScript is something like hiding or showing a certain element when the user clicks a specific button.
There are various implementations or “versions” of JavaScript, with jQuery being the easiest and most common for web designers to learn and utilize.
It’s a web designer’s responsibility to construct the overall look and feel of a website, using images, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to do so.
Designers are typically creative in nature, and have a knack for picking aesthetically pleasing color palettes.
Designers structure websites so that the flow of information is intuitive and comfortable to users. They’re responsible for creating a cohesive user experience, whereas developers create the user interface itself.
Global Information Technology offer a very comprehensive Web Design course that includes all of the above computer languages and Intro to Bootstrap for responsive websites, but also offers the web authoring interface of Dreamweaver for creating web pages with little programming background, and Photoshop to assist with graphical elements.
Contact us today at (248) 557-2480 to speak with a Career Counselor and for more information on our Web Design course. You can also visit our website at: www.gogitgo.com!
