Web Site Development - The Roles of Web Designers and Web Programmers

A web site is a software package. By definition, a package is a ready-made program that is available to users for use to perform some tasks. These users include non-IT professionals. Thus, a web site qualifies to be a package like Microsoft Office, Peachtree Accounting packages.
Before the revolution of The Web (WWW), development of software package was the exclusive preserve of skillful programmers. Programmers or software developers develop the logic of programs which a package will eventually use to function. This logic building aspect of software development requires high level of intellect. This together with the intricacies of mastering programming languages made the development of packages uninteresting and unattractive to a large spectrum of people.
Following the revolution of The Web, it became possible for non-programmers to develop packages right from the inception. These are web-based packages and of course, web sites, requiring no programming skills. The result was the creation of a new type of profession called Web Design. A web designer is someone who organizes a web page by arranging texts, pictures, animations, forms etc on a page and formats them to produce good presentation. All he needs do is to make use of any of the appropriate web development tools like Macromedia Visual Studio and Microsoft FrontPage. Through the Design section of Macromedia Dreamweaver, for example, you can design a whole web page without using HTML codes. What you have is a web site. A web site is one or more web pages. These web development tools are the equivalent of what the popular package Adobe PageMaker does which is to organize and format pages of books, magazines, newspapers etc. No programming is required.
The limitation of web designing is the creation of static web sites which may be suitable for some applications but not all. They produce non-interactive and non-dynamic web sites that are unsuitable for certain applications and needs. For example, online registration. The role of a web designer stops at this point and that of a web programmer begins. As a result of the limitation of static web sites, the need to move further arose. People wanted sites where they could post forms for tasks like creating accounts online and authentication of passwords. This led to the development of web programming languages otherwise known as scripts. Examples are JavaScript, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, ColdFusion etc. The result was the creation of the profession of web programming. A web programmer is someone who develops programs for the purpose of performing automated tasks on a web site. Some prefer to call them software developers. Example of such tasks are:

1. Data validation.
2. Form submission.
3. Sign Up.
4. Database search.

Thus, it became possible to develop dynamic and interactive web sites capable of doing what conventional software could do on stand-alone computer and network using non-internet technologies. Online banking, stock broking are examples. These functions can now be carried out entirely on internet. To develop functional scripts for such automated tasks, logic building and mastery of the programming language to use in terms of syntax are required. Most of the programs are written from scratch.
Can you be a web designer and a web programmer? Yes, you can. There are people who double as web designer and web programmer but specialists are noted for doing better in their respective fields of specialization than non-specialists. Some sites do not require more than web designing but many sites nowadays require both web designing and web programming like the multi-tier applications that have presentation layer, the logic layer that interfaces the presentation layer with the database, and the data layer that contains the database. There are even database specialists who design database and write what is called stored procedures and triggers right inside the database. The use of stored procedures increases the overall efficiency of site execution as it minimizes the number of times SQL statements are parsed, compiled, and optimized during execution. You can see that site development is quite deep.
The roles of web designers and web programmers are complementary in the development of web site. You need to identify where your ability lies and allow that to inform your choice of area of specialization. If you know you have the ability to write programs, you can go beyond web designing and become a web programmer but if it is otherwise, stick to web designing and continue to grow and sharpen your skills. The truth of the matter is that programming is not for everybody.
If you are a conventional graphic artist, you will find it easy to crossover to web designing and if you are a conventional programmer, you can readily crossover to web programming. What I mean by conventional graphic artists are those who have the expertise in the use of tools like CorelDraw, Photoshop, and PageMaker to perform Desktop Publishing tasks. By conventional programmers, I mean the experts in programming languages like C++, FoxPro, COBOL, and Dbase.
As long as you can determine where your ability lies, you will surely overcome frustrations in your tasks of developing web sites and you will continue to enjoy what you are doing. If you are a web designer and you have a job that involves programming which you cannot handle, look for assistance from a web programmer. If you are a web programmer and you are having issues with web designing in your task, seek the assistance of a web designer. If you can handle both areas to a very large extent, well and good.

Olumide Bola holds a bachelors degree of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and is currently pursuing chartered membership of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN). He is also a member of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS). He has trained scores of people for well over a decade in programming and non-programming courses. He is currently a Software Developer and the Managing Director/CEO of Victolay Technologies Limited.

Web Design Tricks in Inexpensive Web Design Services

The dream of each entrepreneur starting a web-based business is to get affordable web design services. With affordable web design services, you would be capable to get the most effective designs at the lowest worth possible. The mix of these two components decide the success of an enterprise online. Of the huge number of web design firms, there are some that provide the good high quality at the worth a mean web marketer would be capable to afford.
Methods are involved in designing websites. The tips are supposed to get extra out of a website. The extent of internet design tips determines the full cost of operating a web site and the web business. Right here we shall discuss web design tricks that make net design services inexpensive:
1. Search engine friendliness - A web design trick is making the web site being search engine friendly. Which means that the web site have structures that help the location to be easily crawled and listed by the search engines. This may then make the positioning to simply appear in search engine results. Therefore it is extremely essential that you think about an online design company that has specialists in search engine optimization for websites. Search engine pleasant features are good URL construction, sitemap, RSS, characteristic, image kind, etc.
Not all web design companies are serch engine oriented. There are many good net design companies that will create good websites for you with good designs at low cost costs however with poor search engine features. In this case, the service of the net design firm is not inexpensive because you are paying for it that lapse by way of lack of revenue that might have been made via search engine traffic.
2. Easy replace - An online design trick is that the website needs to be simple to update. An affordable internet design service is one with an internet site that you would be able to simply replace yourself. It mustn't require special skill to do. Net design companies turn expensive in the event you would all the time should get in touch with the net design company before you possibly can edit articles, change pictures, add movies, change navigation structure, etc. All these value extra money.
3. Customization - One of many net design methods that give affordable web design services is being able to customize the web site to swimsuit the needs of the client. An web business promoting fashion products ought to have designs that the shopper can simply incorporate to mirror the season. Throughout Christmas season, the shopper ought to have the ability to use the customization options so as to add designs exhibiting the Christmas trees, enjoying Christmas songs, etc. All these have impact on the web site visitors. Guests feel comfortable when the website they visit show designs that replicate the season and the product they're interested in. This increases sales. There are websites for children. As an illustration, an internet site promoting youngsters video and laptop games must be personalized to include intro video games that may be performed online. The power to customise an internet site have a psychological effect on the shopping for behavior of internet users. An online design will flip inexpensive if that is in place.
Reasonably priced internet design services are usually not solely in terms of price. What determines affordable web design services is the experience of the shopper after the website has been designed. A website designed at a very low value could later prove very pricey for what you are promoting if it doesn't have mandatory options that would enhance your on-line sales. Hence, among the web design tricks menioned above have lots to do with whether or not you bought an inexpensive web design service.

affordable web design services
affordable web design services

Creative Web Design

By contracting a creative web design company to design your new website as opposed to a more traditional web company, you give yourself an unmeasurable edge over your competition in the eyes of your potential customers.
Traditional design companies focus on purely getting a site put together with relevant information, that functionally works. Enter Web 2.0 and more traditional marketing avenues venturing into the marketplace, and creative web design companies have come into the game.
By 'creative web design', I refer to websites which still have the functionality and relevant information consumers have come to expect, but have a huge focus on the aesthetic aspect, and use traditional marketing 'wow factor' to capture the users attention, and last longer in their mind than those of the competitor.
Picture a billboard with great graphic design and immaculate choice of imagery, compared with an ad on the side of the road simply with a name and number. While you may have chosen to look at both, the creative approach will prompt you, the audience, to remember the creative billboard.
Now picture two websites, side by side. One with a flash intro page, immediately showing a montage of images and grabbing y our attention; which leads into a visually beautiful website where every pixel is perfectly crafted into alignment. Next, a bland website showing you purely text and a basic navigation. The difference is so enormous it's like comparing Black and White TV with a 3d Movie Theatre.
Through the use of the latest and greatest technology, a creative web design company will use Flash, jQuery, and HTML5 to visually engage the user; however this is where the pitfalls of a creative web design can come into play.
Many years ago, around the year 2000, many graphic design companies started to see an emergence in the marketplace for web services. Many of these companies had employees with a little web experience, enough to get by, and as such they began offering web services. What they didn't understand was functionality, valid mark-up, cross-browser compatibility, or SEO - all things which a more traditional web design company would take into account.
While this would be classed as a creative web design company, often their creative web design's wouldn't be successfully converted from a design into code, and having mis-alignments in a design (especially cross-browser) became commonplace. Without experienced developers on-hand, many of these problems became overlooked, and many substandard creatively designed websites are still around today, with more and more being sent live on the world wide web every day.
For this reason, when looking to hire a creative web design company, you should always be sure to look into their operation, most reputable companies won't mind you asking a few questions. In a creative web design company, the people building your site should be working as a team. The days of all-rounders are over, and when creativity is to be combined with functionality, it is essential to have a 'designer' as well as a 'developer' work on your project.
A designer is generally artistically minded, and may have worked as a graphic designer in the print world at some capacity. Thei r goal is to create a visually appealing design for your approval. This will be a static image of what your website is going to look like, as it is much faster to edit a graphic than to edit a coded website. Most creative web design agencies work in a similar fashion, as this allows for the complete artistic talent of the designer to be used, and complete use of the imagination of not only the designer, but also the client.
Once a design is approved, a developer steps in to convert this to a web format in standards compliant code. This may include implementation of a Content Management System (CMS), and generally involves some mild Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well as cross-browser compatibility. Once this is done, your brand new creative web design is all ready for the World Wide Web.
You need to choose a creative web design company that can fulfil all of your needs from creating a website which suits your brand image and captivates the user, to something which will navigate easily, rank well on search engines, function the same across your entire user-base, and ultimately lead to more conversions in your market.
The main things to keep in mind when choosing a creative web design company are their design to implementation process, their cost, their portfolio, and ultimately the level of service you can expect. I am an online consultant, and can help you shoul d you have trouble finding an agency, or even if you would like me to help in assessing another agencies ability to meet your needs to come up with a creative web design that will fit your needs and help in squashing your competition.

Jared Codling from Creative Web Design Blog [http://www.creative-web-design-blog.com/]

Top 10 Web Design Schools in Canada

There are many web design schools in Canada that offer a promising career for hopefuls looking to get into the design industry. Web design is still a pretty new subject in terms of education and it can be difficult to understand what the different is between a "good" program and a "bad" one. The field is bursting with potential and if you find the right school in Canada it can prove to be a very smart step in your career progression. Whatever path or school you choose, make sure it is the right choice for you.
1. DeVry University - Calgary, Alberta
The web design program at Devry University is one of the top programs in Canada and is widely recognized for its accredited courses. Their program provides graduates with the ability to produce visually appealing designs that are functional, user-friendly and accessible. They also give you the technical software tools to be successful after you graduate DeVry.
2. Humber College - Toronto, Ontario
Humber College knows that interactive design is a growing field of study. That's why this is one of the most up-to-date courses - they provide students with all the fundamental basics such as HTML, CSS, responsive web design, prototyping and application development. They regularly check with industry standards to update their curriculum and keep it up-to-date to be compliant with professional practices.
3. Art Institute of Vancouver - Vancouver, BC
The Art Institute of Vancouver is one of the top schools in Canada. They offer students with a high percent rate of employability after they graduate with a strong focus on blending theory and practice. According to their website, they provide students with employability, development of key technical skills, development of critical thinking skills, ethical awareness and concept development.
4. Sheridan College - Toronto, Ontario
Located in Toronto, Ontario, Sheridan is one of the top-rated schools in Canada to get a degree. With its program, students will become well-versed in applying design to advertising and marketing mediums through the web. It offers a two semester program so that you can be working within less than a year - with up-to-date technologies and techniques.
5. NAIT - Edmonton, Alberta
Want to learn how to design engaging layouts and user-friendly, intuitive designs? The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology can provide you with a web design certificate that will give you the curiosity, inspiration and imagination needed to explore every inch of the industry. Packed with both the technical and practical information to becoming a web designer, these courses are industry relevant and will give students a great start for their career.
6. Digital Art School - Fredericton, New Brunswick
Building web and interactive content is the Digital Art School's speciality. Located in Fredericton, New Brunswick, this school is one of the top in the country. This school specializes in the digital arts, giving them a higher student satisfaction rate. The curriculum itself was compiled by industry-working web designers so students can get the real-world experience.
7. Pacific Design Academy - Victoria, BC
The Pacific Design Academy provides students with a quality education in the beautiful city of Victoria, BC. The major differentiator between Pacific Design Academy and other colleges is that all their professors are practicing in the industry. This means students are guaranteed to have a curriculum that fits the industry requirements. Their approach provides students with a great mix of illustration, copywriting, marketing, digital graphics, marketing and creative problem solving - all skills that are highly sought after when you graduate.
8. George Brown College - Toronto, Ontario
George Brown, located in Toronto, Ontario, is one of the best design schools in Canada. Their approach to teaching is to give students a wide variety and option of design, so you have a vast working knowledge once you leave. Their intensive program train students to become accustomed to the fast-paced industry that awaits them. All the programs George Brown offers are interesting and cutting-edge courses.
9. Red River College - Winnipeg, Manitoba
The programs at Red River College have been providing Manitoba student's with a great start to a career in web design. These programs focus on how design plays a vital role in communication technologies and presenting ideas to clients. They give web design students a good balance between the technical knowledge required and the practical information needed to be successful. Red River College also provides web design students with a design internship or placement.
10. Academy of Design - Toronto, Ontario
The Academy of Design in Toronto, Ontario provides design students with a fast track to their career as a web designer. This school is well-known for recognizing that the interactive media field is booming. Highly skilled graphic and web designers are in great positions to secure employment after they graduate from the Academy of Design, one of the best web design schools in Canada.
The wide variety of design schools can be overwhelming. This list proves that some of the best schools and programs are right here in Canada. Meaning, they can provide you with a high quality web design education right here at home. With this profession booming, you will never be without a job when you get an education through a Canadian design school. With an intensive design program as a student, you'll receive a great combination of skills that will help propel your career.

Janna Hagan is a web designer from Canada. She is the founder of Student Guide to Web Design and Junior Design Jobs, a resource to better equip design students with the information they need to succeed after graduation.

The Progress of Web Design: From Tim Berners-Lee to Mobile Website Design

Evolution of Web Design
In the early 1990s, websites were text-based. The use of images and graphics were not yet main stream at the time. The first web design was made of a single column and text-based pages in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). Website pages were a collection of text documents connected to each other by internal links. Through research and development, significant advancements were made. The first website was published in 1991 by the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. He is also the current director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) founded in 1994, which oversees the web development and its standards.
In the mid 1990s, table-based websites were introduced. Now web designers were able to organize their web pages within cells of a table. It became possible to create multiple column websites, which in return allowed better web content organization and navigation layout. Table-based websites also enabled customization of each element within the table. Web designers could now insert background images within cells of a table; however, good design principles were not really important. Website designers and clients were interested by the hottest, latest and most advanced web design technology available. As things started to evolve, frames, animated texts and visual hit counters became part of web design. Frames were used to clearly separate the body of a website from the sidebar navigation. Animated texts and GIF images were used to capture the website user's attention, while visual hit counters became a good way to measure the popularity of a webpage. In 1994, Macromedia introduced Flash, which is essentially a software used to produce Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to create animations and stream videos.
In the late 1990s, Flash became more popular. Most websites became a combination of table-based design and flash elements, with flash animations including the company's logo, a flash-based navigation and flash-based image galleries. The major Web Design innovation of the late 1990s was the introduction of Personal Home Page (PHP) which according to Wikipedia, is a server-side scripting language designed for web development. PHP gained a lot of popularity because it is free and compatible with leading operating systems and web servers which make it deployment easy across different platforms.
The 21st century brought a lot of innovation to web design with the introduction of CSS. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to format an HTML webpage. Now web designers could separate the content of a page (HTML) from its styling or design (layout, colors, fonts, etc.). In the early 2000s, Microsoft Internet Explorer became the first web browser to fully support the CSS structure. In stride, the concept of intelligent web was introduced with the advent of JavaScript. Now designers could animate content without flash and perform a complex computation of data. The use of drop-down menus and forms also became very popular. These forms allowed internet users to generate content online, create personal profiles and upload pictures.
In the mid 2000s, the semantic web was born. This movement primary allows machines and computers to understand website pages as well as human do. This was made possible by inserting computer readable Meta tags about pages and their relation to one another through technologies such as XML, TURTLE and N-TRIPLES.
The last decade was marked by the advent of web 2.0 with some major updates. The web became more and more interactive, and web applications began to expand. Now web content can refresh itself without having the entire page reloaded. The attention is now geared toward web content (articles, Press Releases, graphics and videos) instead of just selling products online. And HTML 5 was introduced as an alternative to Flash and graphics.
Mobile Web The New Trend
A recent study showed that by 2014, mobile device sales will exceed desktop sales. More and more web designers are converting their website to a responsive version for users on the go. The new standard is gearing towards tall and skinny websites, rather than short and wide lay-outs. The navigation menu is significantly reduced to the most important links. Nowadays, mobile sites are used for various purposes, such as location detection, GPS tracking, etc. and the data is offer services, such mobile coupons, local restaurant reviews, etc. Another recent study stated that two-thirds of cell phone users say they access the web/email from their device.

OTLMP.com

Solutions for your Business: Denver Web Design and Internet Marketing

Internet marketing and web design go hand in hand. The web allows the whole world to find out about a certain product or service through online advertising. So, it's only natural that marketing strategies and the appreciated Denver web design companies are very popular nowadays. Since a pleasant web design is necessary for any website that wants to attract customers, it's not wise to avoid personalizing your business when working online. You shouldn't fear the web just because of a few tricks you haven't found out about yet.
There are a lot of people that don't know their way around the information superhighway. One thing you should know about this great world wide market called the Internet is that it offers a lot of possibilities and the chances to sell information grow if your packaging is attractive. Denver web design and Denver internet marketing are indispensable for a successful business. Providing visually appealing sites, Denver web design puts your site in front of the competition. The information you present on your site can be very useful, but the web design matters just as much. Clients first come into contact with how your business services are presented. Their first impression is not formed by the formal articles that appear on your pages. Denver web design knows this and they provide professional help. Using cutting edge tools, designing easy-to-navigate sites, making user friendly pages and keeping in mind that the business has to be promoted, Denver web design creates exactly what your customers look for. They do their job in a wonderful manner because they are experts who want to please not only you, but your clients as well. So, you see, web design is the first step in making your business a popular one.
You probably remember visiting other websites and recall enjoying only some of them. Did you ask yourself why? Could it have been the web design? Their brands haven't faded from your memory. They were easy to spot, yet they did not bother you. Their custom web design was better than what you usually see. You especially liked the flash videos. Although the wonderful colors did not distract you from the information you were reading, they had a special charm. You felt safe and everything worked smooth. "The pages load easily", you thought. You don't like to wait and this site seemed to know it. The site didn't know it, but the people that worked at it knew. Denver web design wants to make your business work by itself. If you want your customers to remain as pleasantly impressed as you did, then a Denver web design is a wonderful choice. You can even have your corporate identity synthesized and your standards of communication set. Web design allows your business to transmit a certain clear message to your clients: "Please visit our site again!"
After you succeed in offering the best to the world, you have to make your business known. Search engines display hundreds of sites to the interested clients that look for certain services. How will they find you? This is where internet marketing comes in. There will be lots of questions you will ask yourself, but Denver Internet marketing can be the answer for all of them. If you need SEO, advertising, link management, banners, affiliate marketing, local marketing - shortly said traffic - , then you need internet marketing. Because there are so many options through which you can gain publicity, you will need a strategy, people to work for you and to manage this sort of problems. Denver Internet marketing offers alternative methods and puts web experience in your service. You can have several advantages because, having internet marketing done for you site you will be able to profit from illustrated brochures, business cards, letterheads and artworks.
So you decided to use Denver web design and Denver internet marketing. What do you start with? Getting informed, of course. Try to find out which service provider is best for you. Any appreciated Denver web design or Denver internet marketing company has itself a well developed web site. Their promotion can inform you on how well they promote others. Internet marketing is their job. Their business survives because of the traffic they provide for themselves. Is their company among the best? Is it popular? Is it advertised? These are questions that will tell you how well they know internet marketing. The first encounter with their web design should talk about their services' quality. Is their site pleasant? Does it attract you like those well made sites that you can't forget? Is it elegant or stylish? If you think the Denver web design company you chose has talented people, then you can work with them without worries. The same goes for the Denver internet marketing providers.
You know better than anyone how you want your business to develop, but the Internet is full of proofs that you need a Denver internet marketing strategy. You can't afford failure and you have to admit online competition is fierce. Choosing an online Denver internet marketing company and giving your business a new face with a fresh Denver web design will surely promote your services as being quality ones.

Valuable advice from experienced people tells any online businessmen to use Denver internet marketing [http://www.glovermedia.com/] and a Denver web design [http://www.glovermedia.com/] for their site.

Business Web Designs

Basic knowledge of HTML encoding and a simple sense of artistic design can enable anyone to produce a web page and even a Web site. With cheap hosting solutions available anywhere, an individual or business can easily launch a Web site or page to serve their purpose. But not all Web sites produced this way can produce the intended results. If you are a company that must project credibility, creativity, and professionalism, you need to look to experienced and technically savvy providers for web design solutions.
Businesses need to come across as outlets of quality products and services. They must be able to convey that they can truly provide value for their client's money. People can only base their judgment on the look of a Web site and the experience they get from browsing though the site. First impressions do last and the only way people will ever check out and come back to a site is if it provides what he needs.
If for example you are an E-commerce company; you sell products and services online. Your Web site must feature enhancements such as catalogues, product check out capabilities, credit card payment processing, among others. You must also need to assure your clients of safe transactions in your Web site. They must be able to see that there are proper security protocols in place. A professional business web designer will be able to provide you with all these features.
On the other hand, if you are a company who just wants to have a Web site that promotes marketing and public relations, your Web site should be designed and structured in a way that is attractive, user friendly, and highly interactive. It must always create excitement and encourage a loyal following. A business web designer can integrate download capabilities, chat rooms, and nifty graphics. Your site must also be easy to maintain, as you would most likely have to tweak it often to provide excitement for your target audience and answer their needs.

Business Web Design [http://www.WetPluto.com/Business-Web-Designs.html] provides detailed information on Small Business Web Design, Business Web Designs, Inexpensive Small Business Web Design, Small Business Web Design And Development and more. Business Web Design is affiliated with Affordable Custom Web Site Design [http://www.WetPluto.com/Affordable-Custom-Web-Site-Design.html].