Web design is usually the first and very important stage of a project and consists of graphic design. The latest researches in the Human-Oriented
Technology Lab at Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada) revealed that a visual
appeal of a website can be assessed by a visitor within 50 milliseconds which means that a bad web design is very likely to reduce the number of clients and
the website sales potential. This doesn't mean that the website has to be full of pictures and blinking banners in order to attract visitors.
There are many websites with very modest graphics which are visited by millions visitors a month.
We know that it all really depends on the nature of the website and the company profile. Therefore, when we design the website we listen to our client ideas
then combine them with our knowledge of the web design to make the website as efficient as possible, according to the latest standards including
accessibility and
usability
(if you already have a website and would like to check whether it meets W3C Standards click
here).
When we create our concept of the graphic design then we send it to our client for a review and comments. If the client is fully satisfied with the design the
project proceeds to the next stage called a
web development.
Web development is the next stage of the project and breaks down into two areas:
front-end development and
back-end development.
The first group of developers is generally responsible for combining the graphic design with
(X)HTML and
CSS languages to create the website frame.
They are also responsible for client side functionality by implementing scripts in languages such as
JavaScript or
Visual Basic Script.
They have to make sure that the data coming from the inputs in various forms on the website (e.g. registration form) can be processed by the website engine
(see back-end development) and the data coming from the back-end (e.g.
database or
XML files) is properly displayed in the browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox).
Many web developers use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors like for example very popular Dreamweaver to perform all these tasks, make their work easier
and save their valuable time. As a result of using such editors the website is very often full of unnecessary HTML tags and suffers from the browser incompatibility.
At ITComax Solutions we have the full control of every single tag in our code because all the website pages are hand-coded. That's why our websites are compatible with
major web browsers, search engines friendly and meet the latest standards.
The back-end developers are responsible for creating the website engine which is invisible to the website visitors. It powers the website and is just a collection of all
the functions that are processing the data coming from the users and the data stored in the website database (e.g.
MySQL,
XML files).
While creating all these functions back-end developers have to predict all possible errors by simulating different cases of use the website engine.
To build such the engine we use
PHP language which is very efficient and the most popular among web developers.
There are really no principles how to build such the engine as it really depends on the complexity and the nature of the website. However, we know that higher engine
efficiency gives higher website quality in technical terms.
Many web developers forget about this also very important step which is testing. Without this the website could contain
bugs that weren't caught on the developing stage causing the system malfunction. The tests are performed to eliminate all these bugs and also to check again
whether the project meets the latest standards, pages are loading as fast as possible and the website is displayed properly in the different browsers.
Our clients can be also involved in the testing process to ensure that they are satisfied with the website and its functionality.
