WEB DESIGN

• A web page is a document that is suitable for the World Wide Web and web browsers. 
Web page
A document which can be displayed in a web browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet
Explorer or Edge, or Apple's Safari. These are also often called "web pages" or just "pages."
A WEBSITE, or simply a site, is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, typically
identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server.
Web Server
A computer that hosts a website on the Internet. "Hosting" means that all the web pages and their supporting
files are available on that computer. The web server will send any web page from the website it is hosting to
any user's browser, per user request.
Search Engine
A website that helps you find other web pages, such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo.  InternetExplorer,  Edge,  Safari, 
Firefox, or Chrome.
• Web pages, which are the building blocks of websites, are documents, typically composed
in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML, XHTML). They may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup
anchors.
• Web pages are accessed and transported with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which
may optionally employ encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for
the user. The user's application, often a web browser, renders the page content according to its
HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal.
HISTORY
The World Wide Web (WWW) was created in 1990 by the British CERN physicist Tim Berners-Lee.
On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to use for anyone. Before
the introduction of HTML and HTTP, other protocols such as File Transfer Protocol and the gopher
protocol were used to retrieve individual files from a server. These protocols offer a simple directory
structure which the user navigates and chooses files to download. Documents were most often presented
as plain text files without formatting, or were encoded in word processor formats.
Two types of Website:
1. Static
2. Dynamic
Two types of Website:
A static website is one that has web pages stored on the server in the format that is sent to a client
web browser. It is primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML); Cascading Style
Sheets (CSS) are used to control appearance beyond basic HTML. Images are commonly used to effect
the desired appearance and as part of the main content. Audio or video might also be considered "static"
content if it plays automatically or is generally non-interactive. This type of website usually displays the
same information to all visitors.
A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and automatically.
Server-side dynamic pages are generated "on the fly" by computer code that produces the HTML (CSS
are responsible for appearance and thus, are static files).
There are a wide range of software systems, such as CGI, Java Servlets and Java Server
Pages (JSP), Active Server Pages and ColdFusion (CFML) that are available to generate dynamic web
systems and dynamic sites.
Various web application frameworks and web template systems are available for general-
use programming languages like Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby to make it faster and easier to create
complex dynamic websites.
Why do people put up websites?
1. To do business and trade
2. To share personal interests and entertain people
3. To send out information and push advocacies
4. To create communities
5. To search information
6. To create online school l and upload a tutorial
THE TOP 10 MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF A WEBSITE DESIGN

1. Navigation


The website design should be easy to navigate and the menu items should easily
accessible from any page.
 The viewer should always know exactly where they are on the website and have easy
access to where they would like to be.
2. Visual Design


People are visually oriented creatures, and utilizing great graphics is a good way to make
your website more appealing. Your website has about 1/10th of a second to impress your
visitor - and potential customer - and let them know that your website - and business (by
proxy) - is trustworthy and professional.
 It's important not to go overboard with too much. Scrolling text, animation, and flash
intros should be used sparingly in your web design and only to emphasize a point for
maximum effect.
3. Content
 This is the backbone of your website. Not only does your content play a major role in
your search engine placement, it is the reason most visitors are seeking from your website
in the first place.
Your website text should be informative, easy to read, and concise. Well thought out web
content and copy will do more than anything else to make your website design engaging,
effective and popular.
4. Web Friendly
 No matter how informative, beautiful, and easy to use your website design is, it's useless
unless it's web-friendly. It is important that your web designers know the keys to making
your website work on all the major browsers, and that they utilize meta tags, alt tags, are
fully versed in SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
 Many factors effect your search engine placement and visual appearance of your site, so
make sure your web designers know their stuff.
5. Interaction
 A truly effective website design engages your visitors immediately and continues to hold
their attention through EVERY page, as well as influences them to contact you. This is
called 'conversion', and is probably your website's ultimate goal.
 There is a fine line between ʻinteractionʼ and ʻannoyanceʼ, so the level of interac- tion
should never outweigh the benefit.

6. Information Accessibility
 Not all visitors to your website are interested in, or have the time to peruse the entire site.
They may need to access only a phone number or address, or just a certain bit of info. For
this reason itʼs important to place key information in plain site, in an area that's easily
accessible.
 We've all had the experience of not being able to locate some needed information on a
website, and the result is always a frustrated visitor. The experience is annoying at best,
and a disgruntled visitor won't stay on your site very long and is unlikely not to return,
much less do business with you.
7. Intuitiveness
 A great website anticipates what your visitor is thinking and caters directly to their needs,
and has elements arranged in a way that makes sense. If a visitor is searching for one of
your products or services on a search engine or directory where your site is listed, it's
important that your website have a landing page that is directly relevant to what they
searched for rather than forcing them to filter through all of your information. Remember,
the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
8. . Branding
 Your website should be a direct reflection of your business and your brand. Your visitor
should immediately make a visual connection between your logo, print material, and
brick-and-mortar location. A website that does this not only contributes to the
memorability of your branding, but adds a level of credibility and enhanced image of that
of your overall business.
9. Turnaround Time
 The number one complaint of website design customers is the time it takes to get the site
up and running. Unfortunately, a firm that takes unusually long to complete your website
is par for the course. The longer it takes to complete the website, the more business - and
value - you lose. A website that isnʼt on the web isnʼt and working properly isn't going to
bring you any business!
10. Conversion
 Your website can be the most important client generator your business can have, and
must place the primary emphasis on bringing in new clients and making additional
services available to existing clients through increased awareness of all the services you
offer. Providing them with the tools they need to do business with you in an easy and
enjoyable way will increase your website conversion and bring you the kind of success
you seek.
5 Parts of a Website and Design Trends

1. Header/Banner

The header or banner is located on top of a website. It includes the logo of the company, the
publisher, or owner of the website. This automatically informs website visitors what the
website is about. Websites that offer products and services usually have banners that feature
their latest offers or even the current news about their company.

Trends        
• Logos – are always in no matter how header design innovates.
• Page-sized images – are trending in web design, particularly in banners. Images make a huge
impact in user engagement, especially if the images are interesting and visually appealing.
• Videos – are now utilised on headers. They usually contain the introduction or summary of
the commodities that the company is offering.
• User interface elements – one good example of this is navigation. For instance, a banner
shows a series of images of the latest promos. These elements are clickable.

2. Navigator Bar

The navigation bar/menu tab allows the visitors to check other pages of the website. It
appears in all pages within a website for more convenient navigation. Navigation bars are
usually placed just below the banner/header for convenient access.
• Sidebar – this refers to the placement of the primary navigation and not the usual content of
a regular sidebar. Usually they put the navigation on the left side.
• Navicon – this is common in Facebook mobile app. The navigation is practically hidden until
you tap the icon similar to this:
Hidden navigation allows users to view the entire page.
• Full screen navigation – this is similar to that of Navicon. The only difference is that when
you click the button to show the tabs, it will go full screen instead of appearing on the side.
• Super-sized navigation – this navigation trend allows users to see a preview of what they
should expect in a certain tab. For example, the website of a clothing brand has a tab for
“Tops.” This tab can still be narrowed down to blouses, shirts, tank tops, etc. This basically
allows users to explore especially because the categories have submenus.

3. Sidebar
sidebars are still relevant because of these advantages:
• Content marketing – you will be able to market other contents of your website.
• Promotion – you can promote similar websites or companies in the sidebar.
• Navigation – although this is not a primary navigation, it will still allow users to navigate
other parts of the website through links.

Trends:
Sidebars are basically standard. The trend may appear on the content of the side bar. What
trendy things should we put on the sidebar? Here some of them:
• Social media buttons – these buttons serve as links to the social media profiles of the
website owner or the company.
• Widgets – these widgets could be in a form of feeds (usually social media), polls, contact us
forms, subscription boxes, etc.
Archives – this content allows users to read your previous posts or entries

4. Content

The quality of a website’s content usually dictates the value of your website. You can find
different types of content in a website. They could come in a form of text, image, audio,
video, or a combination of those.

Trends:
• Infographics – these are images, diagrams, and charts that represent certain information.
• Video streaming – this engages users because videos are easy to understand.
• Image collections – these are common in online shops, real estate websites, and travel blogs.

5. Footer
They say the footer is as important as the header. Of course, the users will reach the footer if
they were engaged with the website’s content. And the purpose of engaging them is to make
sure they convert into clients.
Trends:
About us link Address
Contact us link Phone number
Terms of service E-mail address
Privacy policy Other offers
Sitemap Related links/posts
Social media buttons Subscription boxes