What Is Web Design?

Web design is used as a general
term to describe any of the
various tasks involved in
creating a web page. More
specifically, it refers to jobs
focused on building the front-
end of a web page.

The web consists of myriad
pages, presenting information
using different technologies
and linked together with
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.
The basic markup language
used to tell a browser how to
present information is called the
HyperText Markup Language
(HTML). A stricter version of
HTML is also widely used,
known as eXtensible HyperText
Markup Language ( XHTML).

Using HTML or XHTML, a web
designer is able to tell a
browser how a web page
should appear. In the last few
years there has been a push
towards separating the
underlying structure of a web-
page (using HTML) from the
visual presentation of the site
(using Cascading Style Sheets or
CSS). This approach has a
number of major benefits in
both the short and long term,
and is gathering popularity as
time progresses.

From a technical standpoint, the
act of web design can be quite
difficult. Unlike more traditional
print media, HTML has a number
of variable factors. To begin
with, not all browsers interpret
HTML according to the
standards created by the
standard-setting body — the
World Wide Web Consortium,
also known as W3. This means
that while one piece of web
design will appear as the
designer wishes it to in one
browser, it may appear
completely differently in
another. There are numerous
fixes and work-arounds to try
to circumvent browser-specific
bugs, but it is a tenuous
business at best.

Another major limiting factor of
web design is the plethora of
formats a site might be viewed
in. While graphic designers
know exactly how large the
piece of paper they are printing
on will be, a web designer must
account for different monitor
sizes, different display settings,
and even browsers for non-
sighted surfers! Combined,
these concerns often leave a
web designer struggling to
incorporate enough dynamism
to make a web 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 for 'dynamic' web
design include ASP, PHP, and
ColdFusion. Macromedia's Flash
also allows for a different sort
of web design and is very
popular amongst many web
designers.

The possibilities for web design
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 web design.