Web Design Los Angeles

Archive for the ‘Web Design Software’ Category

You may have heard of web design software and wonder what it is and how it can help you. Let’s quickly discuss what a web page is. A web page is a collection of text, pictures, audio, and/or video that is viewed on a Web browser. If you’ve ever used Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Avant Browser, Opera, Safari, Maxthon, or some other browser, you’ve seen web pages. So how does a web page know where to display the images and where the text goes? The web site creator writes instructions for the web page to follow in a computer language known as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). HTML tells the browser what color to make the text, what background image to use, table properties, text color, shape, and size–the whole nine yards. (Note that there are other languages used, but HTML is the predominant one.)

Web design software is used to assist the web developer in writing HTML. Many web design software programs color code your HTML so you can tell the difference between the code and the content to appear on your site. For example, let’s say you want to create a web site that says “I Love New York” in red letters. The HTML coding would look like this:

New York I Love New York

The text that appears in red is the code, while the text in black is the content. This makes it easier to read. You may say, “But what if I don’t know any HTML?” Well, you have several options. Some web design software has help files that offer lessons on learning HTML. You can also use a WYSIWYG application. WYSIWYG, an anagram for “what you see is what you get”, is a type of web design software allowing you to see a near exact replica of what the finished product looks like as you’re creating it. With WYSIWYG, you don’t have to know HTML. You simply click menu drop-downs and icons and select options for formatting and design. The code is automatically written by the software.

There are many web design products available. Some of them are free (CoffeeCup, EasyHTML). Some are somewhat expensive (Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver). Some let you create very powerful, professional features (such as Flash animation, JavaScript, PHP tools, creating animated GIFs, forms and database-driven pages, and more). Other applications are simple, and intended to simply assist you in reading HTML code more clearly. And actually, you can write code with a simple Notepad application and save it as an HTML file.

Is there a “best” program out there? The most “popular” programs are Dreamweaver and FrontPage. However, my suggestion is to go out and check out the demos for several programs. (The ones who don’t offer a demo probably aren’t worth your time or consideration.) Weigh the pros and cons of each and draw your own conclusion as to which web design software beats out the competition.

Web Design is such a commonly used term these days and is used in several different contexts. It can be defined as the process of designing a web page. Web Design is a multi step process and often requires strong creative and analytical skills to produce good material.

Web Design can be broken into the following concepts, which collectively form the basis of designing a web site:

Usability Analysis Wireframes Visuals Interactive Elements

Usability Analysis

This is the process of analyzing the user experience on a website. To provide a higher quality of user experience, designers with extensive background in creating successful websites on the Internet are must on the project. During this phase the goals and objectives of the website to be designed, are carefully examined and items on the web page are marked with priorities. This helps in creating an effective layout to draw the user to certain parts of the web page with higher emphasis compared to the other areas of lesser importance. Usability analysis lays the foundation for the design and is followed by wireframes described in the following paragraph.

Wireframes

Wireframes can be visualized as laying tiles on a blank sheet. These individual tiles would contain the various static and dynamic elements of the web page. During this step the viewing area of a web page is divided into blocks of different sizes, with each block containing the basic layout scheme for the items enclosed within those blocks. This process is extremely important and follows the outcome of the usability analysis. Various elements of the page are assigned their respective real estate and design plan creating overall layout of the web page.

Visuals

Each block of the wireframe is polished with appealing visuals during this process. Having a well-defined style guide is very useful before creating the visuals. This helps with keeping consistent color schemes and fonts. Creative skills combined with thorough knowledge of using designing software are essential to complete this step of the process. Several color effects, font variations, shapes etc. are creating during this phase and the design goes through several iterations before it is finalized.

Interactive Elements

Creating interactive elements goes side by side with the visuals but it is important to understand the difference between visuals and interactive elements. Interactive elements are the elements of a web page that make it interactive. A few simple examples would be sliders, pop-ups, forms, drop down menus etc. Designing an interactive element requires a solid understanding of the functional aspect of a web page along with powerful creative skills.

This article provides very basic understanding of the web design process and can serve as a good starting point for beginners interested in becoming a web designer.

The most commonly used software for designing web pages is Adobe Photoshop. Dreamweaver is another very useful software that is used to convert the Photoshop designs into the HTML version of the design.

There is literally hundreds of web design software out there created for the sole intention of providing help to those people who wish to design their own websites. A lot of this software is supposed to be easy-to-use for not very advanced programmers. But there are also some that were created for advanced users.

Adobe Dreamweaver is probably the most popular choice for web design. Originally created by macromedia and developed by the crafty hands of Adobe, Dreamweaver has syntax highlighting which makes it very easy to use. User’s favourite web design features include the easy synchronization feature that it has that also provides transfer as well. It also finds and replaces text or code lines, terms or expressions in the site. You can also preview the website you’ve designed in locally installed web browswers (ie. Internet Explorer, etc) A lot of versions have been created and continued developments are still ongoing even up to now. The latest version is the Adobe Dreamweaver 11.5.

Good web design software for beginners would probably be the Visual Site Designer. People who are not very into poring over thick manuals on how to create a pro-looking website should definitely try this. Its interface is pretty simple and easy to understand. It even provides a graphic library for snippets and codes that users can use. It also has an FTP client so it allows you to upload pages or changes directly into your design. The only con it has is that the manufacturers for this software charges for any sort of technical support. However, email support is free.

Serif’s WebPlus X4 is one of the bunch that has the wealthiest number of templates available. Its many wizards and helpful media utilities are the reasons why it has also become a favourite among web designers. Though the software may be a bit pricey compared to others, its ability to eliminate mind-boggling code editors and technical jargons is worth every extra penny paid. Compared to Dreamweaver’s heavy design suites, WebPlus X4 provides an easy way of creating sites with a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) interface, drog-and-drop function, and a pretty active technical community to help you out.

Adobe Dreamweaver, Visual Site Designer and WebPlus X4 are just some of the web design software that were made to assist anyone in website-making. Each features its own set of features but you alone can pick out which software will work best for your experience and need.