Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; interface design; authoring, including standardised code and proprietary software; user experience design; and search engine optimization. Often many individuals will work in teams covering different aspects of the design process, although some designers will cover them all.[1] The term web design is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end (client side) design of a website including writing mark up, but this is a grey area as this is also covered by web development. Web designers are expected to have an awareness of usability and if their role involves creating mark up then they are also expected to be up to date with web accessibility guidelines.
Typography
Usually a successful website has only a few typefaces which are of a similar style, instead of using a range of typefaces. Preferably a website should use sans serif or serif typefaces, not a combination of the two. Typography in websites should also be careful of the number of typefaces used. Good design will incorporate a few similar typefaces rather than a range of typefaces. Most browsers recognize a specific number of safe fonts, which designers mainly use in order to avoid complications.
Font downloading was later included in the CSS3 fonts module and has since been implemented in Safari 3.1, Opera 10 and Mozilla Firefox 3.5. This has subsequently increased interest in web typography, as well as the usage of font downloading.
Most layouts on a site incorporate white spaces to break the text up into paragraphs and also avoid center-aligned text. [9]
Page layout
Web pages should be well laid out to improve navigation for the user. Also for navigation purposes, the sites page layout should remain consistent on different pages. When constructing sites, it's important to consider page width, as this is vital for aligning objects and in layout design. The most popular websites generally have a width close to 1024 pixels. Most pages are also center-aligned to make objects look more aesthetically pleasing on larger screens.[10]
Fluid layouts were developed around 2000 as a replacement for HTML-table-based layouts, as a rejection of grid-based design both as a page layout design principle, and as a coding technique, but were very slow to be adopted.[note 1] The axiomatic assumption is that readers will have screen devices, or windows of different sizes, and that there is nothing the page designer can do to change this. Accordingly, a design should be broken down into units (sidebars, content blocks, advert areas, navigation areas) that are sent to the browser and which will be fitted into the display window by the browser, as best it can. As the browser does recognize the details of the reader's screen (window size, font size relative to window etc.) the browser does a better job of this than a presumptive designer. Although such a display may often change the relative position of major content units, sidebars may be displaced below body text rather than to the side of it. This is usually a better and particularly a more usable display than a compromise attempt to display a hard-coded grid that simply doesn't fit the device window. In particular, the relative position of content blocks may change, but each block is less affected. Usability is also better, particularly by the avoidance of horizontal scrolling.
Responsive Web Design is a new approach, based on CSS3, and a deeper level of per-device specification within the page's stylesheet through an enhanced use of the CSS
@media pseudo-selector.Quality of code
When creating a site, it is good practice to conform to standards. This is usually done via a description specifying what the element is doing. Failure to conform to standards may not make a website unusable or error prone, but standards can relate to the correct layout of pages for readability as well making sure coded elements are closed appropriately. This includes errors in code, better layout for code as well as making sure your IDs and classes are identified properly. Poorly-coded pages are sometimes colloquially called tag soup. Validating via W3C[7] can only be done when a correct DOCTYPE declaration is made, which is used to highlight errors in code. The system identifies the errors and areas that do not conform to web design standards. This information can then be corrected by the user.[11]
Visual design
Good visual design on a website identifies and works for its target market. This can be an age group or particular strand of culture; thus the designer should understand the trends of its audience. Designers should also understand the type of website they are designing, meaning, for example, that a business website should not be designed the same as a social media site. Designers should also understand the owner or business the site is representing to make sure they are portrayed favourably. The aesthetics or overall design of a site should not clash with the content so that the user can easily navigate and find the desired information or products etc.[12]
User experience design
For users to understand a website, they must be able to understand how the website works. This affects their experience. User experience is related to layout, clear instructions and labeling on a website. Users must understand how they can interact on a site. In relation to continued use, a user must perceive the usefulness of that website if he or she is to continue using it. With users who are skilled and well versed with website use, this influence relates directly to how they perceive websites, which encourages further use. Therefore users with less experience are less likely to see the advantages or usefulness of websites. This, in turn, should focus on design for a more universal use and ease of access to accommodate as many users as possible regardless of user skill.[13]
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