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Tips for the new web designer
This first article is meant to provide some helpful tips for those just learning to build websites. I am not going to go into details explaining specific technology; rather, I am going to point out a few things that many people just starting out may find useful.
Learn (at least) some basic HTML.
Whenever I suggest this to beginners, they always ask why they should learn to code HTML when there are programs available like Dreamweaver and FrontPage that do it all for you. The short answer is that they don’t do it all, at least not all of the time. While these programs are very useful (and I highly recommend that all web page designers learn to use one of them), they do have their limitations, as in a situation when it might be easier to hand code the HTML oneself. If you don’t know HTML, this will be a problem. You don’t have to learn everything there is to know about HTML, but you should learn the basics, as well as the key tags that are most often employed:
<a href=””></a> : The link tag is the most important tag there is. HTML is all about linking documents (web pages) together, and as such they form the basis of making the web work.
<table> </table> : The table tag is used to create tables. Originally it was invented to present data (like a stock report) in tabular form. Soon after, inventive HTML designers started to use the table tag to format entire web pages by inserting not only text, but images as well into tables. Today 99% of web pages are formatted using tables.
<div></div> : Div tags allow you to demark
a portion of your page so that you can manipulate it. Another way
of saying ‘demark a portion’ is ‘put into a
container’. Once a part of your web page is in this <div>
container you can treat it many different ways: style it, animate it, make
it visible or invisible, etc. Div’s represent the next
generation of formatting HTML pages, and are in many ways superior to tables.
Learn one wysiwyg* program like DreamWeaver or GoLive and learn it well.
Each of these programs has its advantages, and you may be tempted to jump from one to another as you discover each one's best features. However, you may find that just as you become handy with one new program, you begin to miss aspects of another that you've already come to rely upon. So, stick to one and really learn it well. This will go a long way to making you a productive web designer.
Keep your web pages simple.
Once you begin to grasp the mechanics of making web pages, you may be tempted to go all out with animated gifs, rollover effects, and fancy designs. The problem with this approach is that it can easily lead to pages that are visually confusing, while site maintainance slips out of control. Remember, Web sites are always in need of changes and updates; you will be thankful when the day inevitably comes and you have an easy-to-update modular site to work with instead of an inflexible, over-designed mess.
If you liked the article and you want to see more let me know!
* wysiwyg stands for: 'what you see is what you get.'
