Web design is a process of conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media content delivery via Internet in the form of technologies (such as markup languages) suitable for interpretation and display by a web browser.
The intent of web design is to create a web site that presents content to the end user in the form of web pages. Such elements as text, forms, and bit-mapped images (GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs) can be placed on the page using HTML, XHTML, or XML tags. More complex elements like flash,movies can also be embedded in the web pages.
Improvements in the various browsers’ compliance with W3C standards prompted a widespread acceptance of XHTML and XML in conjunction with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to position and manipulate web page elements. The latest standards and proposals aim at leading to the various browsers’ ability to deliver a wide variety of media and accessibility options to the client possibly without employing plug-ins. Therefore html validation in accordance with W3C standards should be maintained.
Typically web pages are classified as static or dynamic.
* Static pages don’t change content and layout with every request unless a web master or programmer manually updates the page.
* Dynamic pages adapt their content and/or appearance depending on the end-user’s input or interaction or changes in the computing environment (user, time, database modifications, etc.) Dynamic content is often compiled on the server utilizing server-side scripting languages. Both approaches are usually used in complex applications.
With growing specialization within communication design and information technology fields, there is a strong tendency to draw a clear line between web design specifically for web pages and web development for the overall logistics of all web-based services.