Getting Started Learning Web Design: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2

Lesson Overview What is the Internet? History of the Internet Anatomy of a Web Page What is the Web Made Of? Careers in Web Development Web-Related Languages Where Do I Start?

The Internet Internet = A network of networks No company or government owns the Internet Many ways to share information between computers The World Wide Web is a subset of the Internet

WWW The communication protocol of the WWW is HTTP = Hypertext Transfer Protocol The web is a visual medium that combines text and graphics Information is presented to the user via a web page Does not mean: “Whistle while you wait”

A Brief History of the Internet 1969 The Internet began as ARPANET US Department of Defense funded the project They wanted a way to insure the transfer of information between servers if there were a nuclear attack 1972 First electronic mail sent 1989 brought the advent of the WWW Tim Berners-Lee proposed hypertext to link related documents - The Invention of WWW (Youtube)The Invention of WWW First web pages were text only 1993 First graphical Web Browser- Mosiac 1997 The term “weblog” is coined, later shortened to “blog.” 2007 – Over 1 billion Internet users and over 92 billion web sites

Who Controls the Web? No single entity controls the Web Two organizations have an influence over the direction of the Web The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) based at MIT They help set up the standards and enforce rules for the Web, Browser developers like Microsoft and Mozilla Constantly add new features to their browsers, often in conflict with each other and the work of the W3C

The Web Attracts Business The early Internet was a community of research institutions and government agencies E-Commerce technologies have allowed businesses to conduct transactions in a somewhat secure manner on the Web Many companies still keep their most private information on intranets where they can make use of Web technologies

The Web is Graphical Browsers allow the presentation of both text and graphics in color on the same page The Web is really a hypermedia system Images Sound Video Animation Text and Hypertext Source:

Anatomy of a Web Page A web page is an electronic document written in a computer language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) When you surf the WWW, web pages are displayed in a web browser Web pages on a site are linked together through a system of hyperlinks, enabling you to jump between them by clicking on a link

Viewing Source Code Source: This is my Main Page This is some text. This is a link to Page 1 This is a link to Page 2 index.html

Viewing Source Code cont. HTML pages contain: HTML tags and plain text The code of the web page is stored as an ASCII text file with either the.htm or.html file extension You can view the source code by: opening the file in a text editor from the browser: View->Source

URL- Universal Resource Locator Resources are found on the Web through an address or location known as a URL The URL is made up of three parts: The protocol: http, ftp, news etc. The hostname The directory and filename protocolhostname directory/filename

Default Files When the server receives a request for a web page with just the directory name, it looks for a default document Default filenames are usually index.htm index.html The “i” must be lowercase to act as default file For security reasons, every directory should have a default file – prevents snooping

What is the Web Made Of? Your personal computer Web browser software A connection to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) Servers that host the data Routers and switches to control the flow of the data Source:

Web Servers To publish pages on the Web you need a Web Server This is a program that responds to requests for files from a browser The server accepts the connection, sends contents of the file, and then closes the connection

What the Browser Does A user working on a computer (client) machine sends a request across the Internet to a Web Server The Web Server finds the requested page and sends the information back to the Client The Client uses an application called a Browser to display the page

Microsoft Internet Explorer Most popular browser, newest version IE8 This browser is built into all the current versions of Microsoft Windows Also runs on Macintosh and UNIX platforms As of July 2009, 67.68% market share Free download available from Microsoft’s Web site

Mozilla Firefox In 1998, Netscape freed up the source code for their web browser The Mozilla foundation is the independent, non-profit organization that support modification to Firefox Firefox is closing in on IE as a dominant web browser, 22.47% of browser market as of July 2009

Safari This browser was created by Apple Inc. and first released in January 2003 Version of Safari for Windows was released in 2007 As of July 2009, had 4% browser market Key features: tabbed browsing, support CSS3, spell-checking Can be downloaded for free from

What do I need to learn? Web design is a catch-all term for the process that encapsulates a number of disciplines: Graphic design User Interface design Information design HTML production Programming Multimedia

Careers in Web Development People of all backgrounds are becoming interested in learning about Web design: Print designers evolving their expertise to Web design Secretaries and office staff given Web development responsibilities Programmers moving into Web programming Graphic designers lending their talents to Web development teams Information engineers designing information presentation and data gathering via the Web

Graphic Designers Make decisions about everything that is seen on the Web page Color Typography – Font sizes, styles and colors Graphics Page Layout Might require some formal training if you want to design commercial sites

Interface Designers Focus on how the Web page works Usability is a key issue Create methods for how things are done: buttons, menus, navigation links etc. Often have background in software design Requires a combination of personal research, experience, and common sense

Information Designers Focus on the organization of content and how you get to it: Also called information architects Use flowcharts and diagrams Might have a background in database design and data modeling Some have background in library science

HTML Producers A majority of the Web design process involves the creation of HTML pages HTML programmers often need to have other scripting or programming skills Debugging errors is an important task Usually part of a development team Often use powerful tools to shorten development time

Programmers Enhance web pages with advanced functionality Write scripts Programs Applications Database interactivity Server Some have background in Computer Science Some are self-taught

Multimedia Developer A web site can come to life with the addition of multimedia Graphics Sound Video Animation Interactivity A background in video or sound mastering is preferred Knowledge of development tools a must

Web-Related Languages HTML/XHTML Style Sheets JavaScript,VBScript DHTML CGI Scripting XML Java

HTML Hypertext Markup Language The language used to write web pages Evolving to XHTML Enhanced Hypertext Markup Language Everyone working with web development needs a background in HTML Once you learn the basics, using development tools will be easier

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Allow you greater control over text and page formatting Styles can be reused to define a “look and feel” standard for a site Won’t work consistently on all browsers Will gain in popularity

JavaScript A scripting language Not Java These program instructions can be inserted into a web page to add functionality Mouse-Overs Form Validation Pop-up windows or menus Changing behaviors Many professional web authoring tools generate JavaScript for you It is helpful to have a programming background

Where do I start? Understand how the Web works Take a class on Web design Learn the fundamentals of HTML Understand the role of the server Learn a Web design tool Build some test Web sites Keep adding to your “bag of tricks”

What is Needed for this Class? Hardware Computer Consistent Internet connection Web Server Software HTML Editor – Notepad, HTMLKit Web Graphics Application-GIMP Authoring Environment – Microsoft Expression Web Internet Web Browser – You choose FTP Client - CyberDuck

Summary Web design is a very broad field of study This class covers just the tip of the iceberg: HTML/XHTML CSS Web Graphics Templates Website Management Afterward… Find your own niche