Building a Website, or putting the puzzle together.

Since I first started getting introduced to Web Design, back in the mid 90's , I have heard many say the following

"Web Design isn't THAT hard to do..."

and they usually follow it up with something like

"All you do is drag that image here, place that youtube video there, write up some text and publish it"

If only the truth of Web Design was REALLY  that simple. What a Designer does is actually more like trying to build a fairly advanced puzzle from the ground up.  To help with understanding this lets just break down a few things about the anatomy of a Web Designer, shall we.

First, unlike many programers, Web Designer's do not have the ability to pick only one language to work with. Sure there are programming languages people know about, but here is a short list of the areas a modern Web Designer should have a working knowledge of

• HTML -Hyper-Text Markup Language
• CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
• Java
• Javascript
• PHP
• Python
• Ruby
• Sql
• Flash (although this is going the way of the dodo bird thankfully) 

Each of these languages carry their own formats on how they are written, and in the caee of some like CSS and Javascript the Designer can actually end up writing one language inside the carrier of another. Usually this is done as inline entries in the HTML document.

The next part of the puzzle that a Designer has to figure out is just how will the final Design be viewed. Sure there are standards in how the above languages are written, but deployment is not always handled the same way depending on options the end user picks from those listed below

platform: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, Xbox 360/Xbox One, PS 3/PS 4, or Chrome OS

browser: Internet Explorer, Safari (Mobile or Desktop), Firefox, Opera, Chrome (mobile or Desktop)

connection speed: Dial Up, Mobile  or Broadband

screen size: Ranging usually from a 4" Smartphone Screen up to 80" Television screens thanks to System on a Stick computers that plug into TV's HDMI Port, like the Chromebit  and the Intel Windows 8.1 Stick

With sub categories for some of these, Windows 98 vs Windows 7 for example, the list goes on.  

Then there is the Multimedia aspects, Photos may need to be processed in Photoshop at different resolutions in order to deliver crisp looking images that load on a page in 5 seconds of landing so that a quick, accessible and eye pleasing experience occurs.

We Designers also have to stay up to date with what formats platforms are supporting, a long standing example of this being the fact that Google and Apple have different views on the now retired mobile version of Adobe Flash. Apple has always stuck to supporting HTML based implementation of graphics, electing to promote using things like GIF  files or embedded movie files in place with a linked embed code. 

On the other hand, Google elected to develop their own version of Flash, called "Pepperflash", to handle what Adobe's format used to.

Web Design does not stop with all the above back end coding though. With all this to take into account the Designer then has to reformat a Client's content, in the process coming up with an efficient layout which delivers said content in a manor which is both meeting the client's vision while delivering a usable and engaging website for the end user. 

Of course, we are not forgetting the detail of "Search Engine Optimization".  SEO, as has been discussed in other blog entries, is the practice of finding the correct search terms so that a Website ranks as highly as possible, coupled with factors like Domain Age and Link Back scores (the number of websites Google considers relevant that host links to your website).

Websites, in many countries, are expected to meet accessibility standards so that users with accessibility issues, like those who are visually impaired, can use the Website. All of the above also is expected to meet W3C Standards and be wrapped into a format that is visually pleasing to the end user regardless of the device used.

So, to bring us back to the original statement of "Web Design isn't that hard to do..." Permit me to say that by the elements, this is indeed true, and through the use of products that allow Drag and Drop design, or "What you see is what you get" results this statement is indeed correct. However when looking at using the WYSIWYG method the results are in line with expecting the quality of a high end  sports car at the cost of a entry level import.

-David for inertialzendesigns.com