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Web design is the practice of website development, or any design output meant for the World Wide Web.
In order for a designer to begin designing for the web, he or she must have a working knowledge of HTML or CSS language.
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and is the dominant programming language for producing content on the web. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet and is a language that controls formatting of type, color, and spacing.
They're both languages for web design, but they are used for different purposes. HTML is what you would use to build structural layers, while CSS is what you would use for the presentation layers.
You can think of HTML as the structure of a house, and CSS as the decorations that make it look nice. Below are basic examples of HTML and CSS code.
In the HTML portion, you can see the first code or syntax for font size for a corresponding text. The text that reads "this is some text" is given a font size of 6 pixels.
Then, you have the background color of the main body, which is specified in hex code. This is a set of six characters made up of the numbers 0 through 1 or letters A through F, and the code corresponds to a color.
Lastly, there is an example of how to place text in a new paragraph. The text that reads "this is a paragraph" would be separated as its own paragraph using that code or syntax.
If you move onto CSS, you can see that it is used for stylizing the text. You can bold or italicize the text, or change the font in other ways. The background color here behaves similarly to that in HTML, but the code is written differently.
You can do all sorts of things with CSS in terms of formatting as well. In this example, the heading 1 of H1 is placed in the center. The syntax reads "H1 text align center," so the first heading is going to be aligned in the center of the page.
The source code is what goes into making a website look the way it does.
In the example above, you can see the HTML code at the bottom; everything is encapsulated in this box from top to bottom.
There's CSS in there as well, indicated by the style syntaxes. HTML and CSS are really good partners; they live together in the same source code. HTML provides CSS with a nice structure to work with and make visual appealing.
Web design has a lot of benefits, such as its ability to allow interaction within its design. This is known as interactive design, and you will encounter this on many websites.
An example of this is when you move your mouse over elements and get mouse-over actions. Another way interactive design is achieved is through advertisements in web banners, which are typically rectangular in shape and can be either static or animated.
Even with increasing Internet bandwidth and speed, one of the virtues of great web design is having an optimized design. This means that the design is as efficient and effective as possible; it uses only the bandwidth that it needs in order to load quickly and run smoothly for the end user.
Source: THIS WORK IS ADAPTED FROM SOPHIA AUTHOR MARIO E. HERNANDEZ
