Principles and Standards of Web Design

Throughout the past six weeks, I have garnered and developed a new broad perspective on web design. Such a novel perspective that even from the start of this course, I would have never in my life perceived it in this specific manner.

I initially thought web design was a matter of how a webpage was to be created and simply designed/constructed. In a short sighted way, I was kinda right. But the complexity and diversity within web design ranges so widely. Yes, the skills in web design do require the knowledge on how to simply create and/or construct a webpage, which is the bare foundation of web design. But what fulfills a successful web design is what the web page can achieve, as well as how it can ensure individuals and users to return and be loyal customers and users. If you think of it in an objective achieving manner, thats what web sites are usually in existence for: Its the purpose of web pages.

Everyone can learn to design a web, that is not the complex issue that lies within this manner. But what is essential is how effective the design can be in order to allow the best user experience possible, which i will explain later in this post.

With everything that possesses complexity, you must be able to do the basics in order to master the complex stages. In this case of web design. The web designer must be proficient in code, most commonly, html, css, and javascript. By being knowledgable in html, css, and javascript, you can then complete the foundation of the web page: the basic layout and design.

I think of it as an art craft. The way I construct my website is based off how I utilize and beautifully craft my slue of code. Such html tags such as div, header, section, meta, if crafted together in an appropriate manner, can result in a well designed webpage. But what makes the foundation of html code with visual appeal is css styling. With appropriate css styling tags such as font size, which can determine the size of the font, and margin, color, width, to name a few, will allow the web page to be beautifully crafted and visually appealing.

Now the basic coding is dealt with, knowledgable on, and practiced with. A web designer may think its time to proceed immediately into working on a webpage, then publishing it to the public. However, that is not the right case.

It takes steps to master and craft a near perfect webpage. A web designer cannot immediately proceed to work on his website then immediately publish it, without a sketch or a test, how will the web designer know his web page design is affective and appealing? This is where prototyping and user experience comes into play.

With prototyping, a web designer can practice his skills with code. He or she can practice the html skeleton as well as the css styling that he knows, and form it into an web page for practice purposes. This way, once the web developer works on an actual web page which is projected to be published, then he or she will have the general knowledge on how to create an appropriate coded and styled web page.

Now that the web designer is knowledgable in his coding abilities as well as how to implement that code into basic web design skeletons and templates. He is qualified to publish a prominent website correct? Not quite yet.

Sure, any website can be created with code and knowledge on how to implement such code in order to construct a web page, but what I feel the vital key to a web page is its user experience. it is quite imperative for the user of the web page to have a positive user experience, simply for the reason of being able to attract and create loyal users.

A good guideline to follow in order to achieve an optimal user experience are the usability heuristics. These ten guidelines outline the requirements for achieving an optimal user experience. Some heuristics include but are not limited to: Visibility of system status, match between system and the real world, user control and freedom, consistency and standards, error prevention, recognition rather then recall, flexibility and efficiency of use, aesthetic and minimalist design, help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors, and help and documentation. By fulfilling these guidelines, the usability can drastically improve and be optimal for an individual who seeks to utilize the site.

As the web designer now knows that user experience is essential for user satisfaction and loyalty, he thinks that all the requirements for a near perfect website is achieved. He or she is almost there, as he or she had almost completed all the skills as a proficient web designer. Once again, not quite yet!

With part of being under user experience, the web designer must construct his or her web page that becomes accessible to all! In this time of age, especially with many generations who are currently in existence, it is essential for a website to possess accessibility to all. If the web page has been designed well enough for people of all ages and disabilities and meet the web accessibility standards, the web page is prominent and optimal.

The web designer now knows the basic foundation and steps to design and complete a near perfect web page. He realizes that from the beginning of his learning journey, that he had learned a great amount of information in order to become a proficient web designer.

Yes, web design can be beautiful. The art of crafting together slues of code in order for optimal visual appeal while accomplishing the guidelines for user experience and accessibility is a complex, yet achievable process. It takes steps to achieve this sort of mastery, but once learned, it can be extremely rewarding.

When the internet was first released and available to the public, I guess it could of been presumed that a website had to be appealing for the user. One reason the internet was created was for the world to use. Pretty straight forward you can say. So it was inevitable that user friendly web pages had to be created. But the guidelines today that are used for usability and web accessibility have been similar since the first release of the internet to the public, which at the moment, is probably no surprise. But who knows what the future holds ahead us. Maybe, just maybe, the generations after us will find other user experiences attractive, and not our current ones. It may seem ridiculous, but one can never say it will never change. Trends and preferences never remain the same.

I personally have learned a lot from this course on web design. It taught me a new perspective on different approaches as well as new strategies on how to become a proficient web designer. Of course, I have a lot more to learn, and hopefully I’ll be able to do so in the next advanced course. It is all part of the building process, where your craft will eventually become a beautiful, visually stunning, optimal user experience achievable, piece of art.