Robbins, J. (2012). Ch 1 - 3. In Learning Web Design: A
Beginners Guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Web Graphics (4th ed., pp.
3-49). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media.
Book Purchased from Amazon.com
bradfrostweb.com
Summary:
In Chapter 1 Robbins discusses that the term “Web Design” encompasses
4 broad disciplines: “design, development, content strategy, and multimedia;”
she explains that web designers will often wear several “hats.” She discusses
how design not only refers to how a site looks but also in how it works, how it
is mapped out and how it interacts with users. Content is created and then organized
and monitored. The multimedia portion includes the audio and video components. Discussing
HTML5 vs CSS vs JavaScript brought another level of complexity, multiple languages
are used to make up a single website; I have never considered the components of
a website are so vast, something I interact with on a daily basis is suddenly
seems far more complex and intriguing—even more exciting is that this has all
developed in the 20 years!
Chapter 2 focuses on “How the Web Works.” I often think of the
web as information in space, Robbins does a great job of breaking down where
and how the information gets to a webpage—information is hosted and supplied by
servers; clients request information using a URLs, which is a unique address
that is comprised of very specific components, not random letters or numbers as
I had previously thought. The page then loads according to the HTML, which
provides the basic information, and CSS, which provides the pretty stuff or
design aspects.
In Chapter 3 discusses JavaScript and how webpages interact with
differing browsers and devices, called “Responsive Web Design.” I find it
brilliant that a single HTML sheet keeps the content same, and different style
sheets allow the material to be viewed on differing devices and browsers—this explains
while some web sites look different on my iPhone vs my laptop, and others don’t,
its all based on the CSS.
Q1: When designing a website what are some important things to
keep in mind?
A1: Personally, I think it is important to think about how the
user or audience will interact with a website; will it be easy to use, is it
intuitive to get around? One should also think about how the page will look on
different browsers and devices and how quickly it will load. It is important to
keep both the frontend and the backend easy to navigate and update and have a site
map that allows people to find what they need.
Q2: What can one do to optimize the performance of their webpage
designs?
A2: There are many things that one can do to optimize the
performace of their webpage these include:
- Minimizing the number of requests made to the server
- Minimizing HTML and CSS by removing extra characters and lines
- Optimize images and graphics by decreasing file size
- Keep JavaScript basic, and have script load in parallel
This is Ted:
(our other pup, he's a lab, golden cross)
(and loves his tigger aka "thaly")
(our other pup, he's a lab, golden cross)
(and loves his tigger aka "thaly")
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