Web Design Core Issue 1: What is Web design (1)

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The discussion about the web is often off because the meaning of the words that people use varies greatly. Although people have more or less views, no one can define exactly what web design is. Some issues are often discussed, such as visual design and programming, but the importance of them in web design is very common. Aside from the visualization and technical aspects, many people think that the creation and organization of Web site content is the most important aspect of web design. With the rise of e-commerce, business considerations have become an important aspect of the successful design of the site.

For a particular project, all of these disciplines and other interdisciplinary disciplines that represent the main aspects of web design may be needed. Because of the impact of many disciplines, such as library and information Science, graphics, program design, client/server technology, user interface design, usability, and other disciplines, web design essentially includes many disciplines.

The Pyramid of 1.1 Web design

While we can consider the impact from more than 10 areas, the four main aspects of web design are content, technology, appearance, and economics. The purpose of the content is to inform or persuade the user, the purpose of the use of technology is to achieve reasonable functions, the appearance of the consideration provides the form of the site, for most sites, you also need to consider the economic benefits of the site. Without clear goals and benefits, such sites are generally not established. Of course, the appearance of the site varies depending on its type. A personal home page will not be like the site of the market to consider economic benefits, a manufacturing enterprise's intranet will not like the public network to consider the appearance effect, such as the use of animation technology. Because the design principle varies greatly with the nature of the site being built, it is difficult to consider web design as a whole.

As shown in Figure 1-1, it is very vivid to compare a Web site to a pyramid. Content is the building of the pyramid of Bricks, and the foundation is based on the appearance and technology above, it relies heavily on the economic benefits of website construction. As a web designer, you should try to design carefully, but the whole process will be difficult. The constant updating of web technologies makes it challenging to design a Web site, requiring joint operations and a thorough understanding of web media. Even if we are web design experts, can build beautiful and practical site, users may be in the face of our work is very confused. Web designers often spend a lot of time thinking about their own needs rather than the needs of their users. Our web pyramid concept may look very much like a real brick pyramid-an airtight tomb-so that the user is confused and unable to find the door. Does the user understand the main points of the site? Although the difficulties of web development are not the same as those faced by the ancient Egyptians in building a pyramid, it is not easy to build a Web site that is practical, enjoyable and acceptable to the Internet era.

It is difficult to build a Web site. Although some core technologies such as H T M are easy to master, developers still make a lot of mistakes. This is mainly due to the lack of developer experience, the confusion of processes, and the unrealistic scheduling. Because of time constraints and lack of experience, developers often go to extremes, regardless of the successor steps, and attempt to one-step, direct implementation. For example, some Web professionals start building sites directly from their skins. Use visual design tools to try to do a page, and then consider the next step, resulting in the design of the page multicolored, looks like a fine brochure. Today, some of the appearance-oriented site is often fully developed using Macromedia Flash, the effect is like playing some movie head but do not introduce the film. This approach, in addition to showing the creators of the design of the art, the site to achieve the goal of no help. For those famous sites, this may be the intent, but what about other types of sites? First of all consider the appearance of those sites often difficult to update, in addition to dazzling effects, there is no major technology, lack of functionality, and download speed is very slow. Many people refer to this site as brochure software (b r o c h u r E w a r e) or title software (i n t r o w a r e), mainly because these sites are not as informative as those brochures, entertainment software or movie presentations. Examples of such sites are shown in Figure 1-2. The other extreme, of course, is to focus on implementing technology at the outset, which, while adopting the latest and best technology, often lacks a holistic design. Looks very clumsy and the interface is very confusing. Sometimes these sites also adopt a design method called "Christmas Tree". Once the basic functionality is achieved, developers start to decorate the tree like a ball or paper-cut, doing everything they can to modify the page with G I F, but in vain. In this case, the appearance is in a secondary position relative to technology. Similarly, in the case of "appearance first", technology is used to show the developer's skills rather than meeting the needs of the users. Excessive use of Java applets and Plug-ins, and require browsers to support the latest version of D H T m L, X m L or C s, this is the "technology first" logo. The pursuit of "technology first" site attempts to adopt a unique design, using the latest version of the browser, often lack of support for site functionality. An example of an overly tech-highly-acclaimed site is shown in Figure 1-3.

Web development Process Model

Technology and appearance effects provide the foundation of the Web Pyramid, which is closely related to the implementation of the site intent. It is better to discuss the intention of the site first and then determine the way to implement it before discovering the problem in haste. This deductive or "top-down" approach to web development is well understood. First of all, it is very important to consider the intention of the site. Before building a site, you should carefully understand the site design problems encountered and to strive to achieve the goal. Clear understanding and definition of objectives can reduce the risk of project failure and help determine the rationality of site design. In determining the goal of a good site, you should create a good specification, the specification document records all the requirements of the site, and seriously consider the needs of users. Then you should produce the site's design book. These designs include prototypes of technology and appearance. Once the design is complete, you should start implementing and testing. Finally, all parts of the site should be set up as a whole and tested further. You must finish the procedure above before you can publish it. Once users begin to feedback, they should proceed with the correction and modification. Many disciplines such as software engineering have defined a process model that is very similar to the one described earlier, most notably the waterfall model, which describes the entire software lifecycle from project planning to final release and maintenance. This process is divided into several phases, from general requirements to concrete implementation, and so help guide the design. Figure 1-4 is an example of a waterfall model partitioning phase.

It is worth pointing out that for the names and numbers of steps in the various process models, the programmers are different. Further, the basic waterfall model is not the only use model, there are other models, such as the modified waterfall (M o d i f i e D W a T e R f a l) model, the spiral (s P i r a l) model, the Joint Application development (joint application Design, JAD) model is also used.

It is important to remember that the ultimate goal of the process model is to help guide the development of the site. The ideal Web process model helps developers deal with site complexity, reduce site risk of failure, properly handle changes encountered in projects, and provide feedback in management to quickly and easily track feedback. In fact, the requirements for an ideal web model are rather harsh, especially given that most web developers are unfamiliar with the formal principles of software engineering, and that the web is not even 1 0 years old.