Defining design, usability, and accessibility on the web

When it comes to using the web there are three important terms that stand out. Those terms include design, usability, and accessibility. When referring to the web, design can be defined as the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity. The design of a website creates an environment for someone else’s expression and creates planes and grids that aid the dynamic behavior of people. It relinquishes control, and the people who use the design bring out and add to the meaning of the website’s design. When talking about usability on the web, one of the main things this term is pointing to is the navigation of a website. If your website is about selling things or convincing a user to come back, navigation is a key factor visitors use to decide if you’re trustworthy or not. And trustworthiness is critical. If you want the viewer to have a good time, make sure they can get where they want to go and know where they are when they’re there. If you show them a good time, they just might come to visit again. But if you leave them lost and confused they’re likely not to come back. The last term, accessibility, refers to how well people are able to get on the web, especially if they are disabled. Most of us can easily access the internet. That is, if we don’t have disabilities. But what about the people who do have disabilities such as being blind or being paralyzed? With today’s technology advancing every day there are certain materials that enhance the accessibility of the web for people with disabilities. These include voice recognition software, eye-gaze software, headsets, and voice activation when items are scrolled over. Over all, the three terms previously mentioned are all things to consider when using the web, and a good web designer will incorporate all three when creating a website.

Sources:

• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/understandingwebdesign
• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whereami/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQT9yVeu_js&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDJt-dp--Oo&feature=related

The Site Development Process and What My Role Is In It

When making a website, there is always a website development process that comes along with it. The process consists of seven basic steps that depending on the nature and scale of the site can vary in order. Usually they are followed in order though. The steps in order consist of conceptualizing and researching the core idea, creating and organizing content, developing the “look and feel,” producing a working prototype, testing the website, launching the website, and maintaining the website once it is finished. 

Just as there are several steps in producing a website, there can be several team members who help produce it, especially if it is a large website. Some of these members include people such as project stakeholders or sponsors, web project managers (account executives and quality assurance testers), usability leads, information architects, art directors (web graphic designers, interactive designers, media specialists), web technology leads (web application programmers, web page engineers, database administrators, web systems experts or webmasters), site production leads (html page coders), and site editors (site copywriters, content domain experts). 

Among all the web design positions I think I would most likely enjoy being an art director or web graphic designer. According to the Web Style Guide, 3^rd edition, the art director’s primary responsibility is the overall look and feel for the web site, establishing the site typography, visual interface design, color palette standards, page layout details, and the particulars of how the graphics, photography, illustration, and audiovisual media elements of the site come together to form an integrated whole. I believe I would find this position most interesting for myself because I already have experience in graphic design. I would only have to learn how to incorporate it into web design. 

Sources:

• Learning Web Design by Jennifer Niederst Robbins (3^rd Edition)

• http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/1-process/2-development-team.html

History of the Internet and How the Web Works

The Internet started out as a project called ARPANET, done by the United States government's Department of Defense, as a means of communication for organizations engaged in defense-related research in the 1960’s. In the 1970’s Internet Protocol, or IP, technology was developed as a means to transfer data or documents, such as email, over a network in order to make the communication more global. Shortly after, the standard protocol was invented, called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), which allowed users to link other branches of complex networks directly to the Internet. When the National Science Foundation took over much of the TCP/IP technology from ARPANET they established a distributed network of networks capable of handling far greater traffic. In 1985, the National Science Foundation began a program to establish Internet access across the United States and ARPANET was shut down by the Defense Communications Agency in 1989 due to limited funding and support from the military. After the Internet was established across the U.S. it began to grow rapidly.

In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, along with his partner, Robert Cailliau, created a prototype called the  World Wide Web as a management system that used a “hypertext” process to link related documents over a network. The Web is just one of the ways information can be shared over the Internet. It works by allowing documents to be linked to one another using hypertext links. All the linked documents form the Web. The prototype the Web uses is called HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which are the first four letters of the majority of websites. For a computer to be able to be a part of the Web it has to be running special web server software that allows it to handle HTTP. When actually using the Web, the browser makes the request for documents and the server returns the documents for the browser to display. This is just a brief summary of how the Web works as a prototype for the Internet.

Sources:

• http://wdvl.internet.com/Internet/History/
•  Learning Web Design by Jennifer Niederst Robbins (3^rd Edition)

Web Design 1: Goals for this class

My goals for this class are to learn more about how to create HTML, to learn how to set up websites, and to understand how websites operate. I am really looking forward to learning more about web design because I know it will greatly help out with my career...whatever field that may be in graphic design. Almost every business, company or individual has or will want a website as a means of advertising their business, product, etc. I believe knowing web design will give me an upper hand against those who don't. Also, a wider range of skills to add to my resume will increase my chances of finding a career. Another goal I have is to take web design 2 to further my knowledge of making websites since knowing how to create websites can be a really helpful tool in the field of graphic design. So in short, my goals of learning web design 1 and web design 2 are short-term goals to help me reach my long-term goals which consist of graduating college with a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Communications, finding a career for myself, and loving what I do with that career so I can not only come home at the end of the day supporting my family but being able to be happy as well because I enjoy designing and doing it for a living.