(Study Program)
Websites have the main function of availing information to web users through internet-enabled devices. As such, web designers must strive to develop interactive websites that provide a good user experience irrespective of the devices used to access such websites. With smartphones and tablets on the increase in the modern market, differences in device resolution requirements in web design can at times be a daunting task for web designers. The answer to this lies in responsive web design. For any web-designer with plans to implement a superb internet site, responsive web design provides a solution to design issues related to speed, dimensions and navigation. Cascading Style Sheets are a part of responsive web design and allow different devices to load specific styles. CSS, therefore, takes care of; device width, device orientation, and aspect ratio.
The web designer can also use CSS to implement usability considerations such as screen size, images, hyperlinks, font sizes, and page navigation. Such form a strong user experience plan. As part of the design, it is imperative that the web designer considers the mode of interaction between web users and the website. Most devices support the use of keyboard and mouse. Other devices, especially the smartphones and tablets, enable navigation through tapping or swiping around web pages. Such developments enable effective viewing of multimedia on mobile devices.
Web Design Trends
The two blog sites compared in this case are hongkiat.com and 99designs.com. Both blogs have interactive site features that deliver a great user experience in every session where a web user visits the sites. Both sites incorporate features such as social media, grid-style layouts, crafty image captions, 3D transitioning effect and animations. While both blogs have a unique way of delivering information to users, each blog has an outstanding feature. For instance, 99designs.com has a powerful use of images to articulate the availed information. On the other hand, hongkiat.com has great incorporation and layout of links of the availed information. Both blogs, however, are good sources of information for the users. There is easy navigation, and both blogs are quite responsive. The areas to improve on would be the use of standard fonts for accessibility by people with visual disabilities.
Digital Camera Specifications for Mobile Devices
In the modern technological world, smartphones cameras have become better and offered the ability to take and share photos instantly. Conventionally, digital cameras offered superior picture quality compared to smartphones. With the technological advancements, however, smartphones cameras have specifications with more than 8-MP resolution cameras for photos and 1080p for full HD videos. Such superior features offer competition to the digital cameras.
A mobile device like iPhone 6 Plus can easily transfer images to a computer with image-editing software either through wire connections using a USB cable or with a wireless connection using WIFI or Bluetooth. With such a device, there are also options for varying the resolution and zooming capability of the camera. The mobile device’s camera may be considered sufficient to create web-ready images. The ability to modify image resolution coupled with a quick transfer to computers with image editing software provide a quick way of obtaining quality images within minutes for use in a web page.
Cascading Style Sheets
CSS is a markup language used by web designers to format elements in a web page. Such elements include fonts, colors, backgrounds, and layouts. CSS forms the standard tool of website construction for web designers. Compatibility with browsers, however, remains a challenge depending on the level of CSS supported by each browser. For instance, older browsers support CSS 1 while newer browsers support CSS 2. The adoption of CSS versions by different browsers determines the usability of CSS in such browsers. CSS 3 is the latest version, and browsers have started adopting this version. Depending on the level of CSS adoption by different browsers, there may be weaker support for some properties. Partial support implies support for only the 'width' and 'height' properties with limited or no support for 'orientation' properties. Browsers support a variety of CSS properties differently. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox happen to be some of the most popular browsers with the highest level of support for CSS. As such, it is recommendable to use CSS on websites as they are readily compatible with such browsers.
Accessibility Standards
Web designers intend their websites to be accessible to all people. As such, persons with disabilities should be in a position to participate equally in the web. Important accessibility considerations include the following:
- Use of appropriate vocabulary clearly comprehensible to the audience
- Use standardized fonts
- Use tables conservatively to format presentation and design
- Use of images of no more than 75 pixels per inch with descriptive text to substitute inaccessible images
- Using spaces to separate links that occur consecutively
All the above are existing considerations. Two sites that meet the above considerations are aucd.org and esdc.gc.ca. With these sites, there is good use of acceptable standards for people with disabilities.
Social Networking and Bookmarking Sites
Social media websites are online platforms where individuals exchange conversations through words, pictures, video, and audio. They create semi-public profiles for such interaction. Social bookmarking sites, on the other hand, enable individuals to establish and share website links.
A web designer can take advantage of such sites to identify relevant information to include on his internet site. The discussions on the social media platform avail info regarding the latest trends that may help to keep the website up-to-date with current events. The web designer can also use the social media sites to publicize and rank his website. For instance, incorporating a link on a social site like facebook.com will generate more traffic to the site and also help rank the site depending on the number of ‘likes’. A good example of a social bookmarking site is redditt.com while facebok.com is a social networking site.
References
Can I use Support tables for HTML5, CSS3, etc. (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2014, from http://caniuse.com/#cats=CSS
Hoisington, C., & Minnick, J. (2013). Adobe Dreamweaver CS6: Complete. Boston, MA: Course Technology.
Leggett, D. (2011, March 1). Considerations for Mobile Design (Part 2): Dimensions | UX Booth. Retrieved December 29, 2014, from http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/considerations-for-mobile-design-part-2-dimensions/
Rocheleau, J. (n.d.). A look into: Designing for Mobile Devices. Retrieved December 29, 2014, from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/designing-for-mobile-devices/
Shelly, G., & Campbell, J. (2012). Web design: Introductory (4th ed.). Boston, Mass.: Course Technology, Cenage Learning.
Study Guides and Strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2014, from http://www.studygs.net/accessibility.htm
