Beginner’s Guide to website design and development

1. Websites
A web site is a set of Web pages (documents that are accessible through the Internet), such as
the one that you are seeing right now. A web page is what you see on the screen when you
enter a web address, click on any link, or put a query in a search engine. A web page contain
various types of information, and can include text, colors, videos, graphics, animations and
sounds.

When someone gives you a web address, it generally must be the home page of their web site,
which should show you what this site offers in terms of information or other services. On the
home page, you can click on the links to access other sections of the site. A web site can consist
of a single page or the tens of hundreds of pages, depending on what the site owner is trying to
accomplish.

If you've grown up with computers or introduced to them in adulthood, it is difficult today to

imagine a world that does not have the Internet. We rely on the Internet to manage our money,
to search for jobs, for we represent professionally and remain in contact with the relatives in
the country or even across the world. Internet and websites travel side by side. We can use the
Internet to do research, to learn and to allow us to carry out projects that we do not know how
to do without trying, that is to say, the instructions on the internet sites. The Internet itself is
barely fifty years old, and the World Wide Web at least thirty years, but if these were to
disappear, the modern enterprise would all but cease.

1.1. Why Do People Visit Websites?

Generally, people remember to consult the web sites for two main reasons:

1. To find the information they need. This could be anything from a school boy looking for
photos of frogs for a school project, to find the latest stock quotes, to obtain the address of the
nearest Italian restaurant.

2. To complete a task. Visitors can buy the latest best-seller, download a software program, or
to participate in an online discussion on a favorite hobby.
 2. Why Design Websites?
The main thing to remember in creating a website is that you're not making the website for
your own sake; you already know about the information or services that you are offering.
You're creating the website for your lovely visitors, so it should contain the content they want
to see, and be organized in a way that makes complete sense.

The most significant element of web development is web-design. Designing includes adding
colors, selecting fonts, funky images and text that will tell good information about your services
and company.

These are some advantages of web designing:

1. It saves you the time

2. It will get you more business
3. It will save you a lot of hassle
4. It will reinforce your brand image

Some other key elements that will explain the why and how of designing a good website:

1. CONSISTENT BRAND IDENTITY

Professional designers think of the large image. They create a visual language for your brand
image, consistent in different contexts. Your website, business cards, logos, and even your
social media profiles have to form a coherent whole. The brands which have a visual language
of most memorable impression are those who are similar to five different side-businesses.

2. MORE VISITORS WHO STAY ON THE PAGE

You’re not just looking for clicks. You’re looking for regular visitors who browse through your
website and get to know who you are and what you can give to them. Considering that most
people will leave after one glimpse at your site, it takes something very special to keep them
interested, and willing to buy your product or service.
 3. DISTINCTION FROM COMPETITORS

Good internet sites are just not enough. Within an industry, there are many sites that look
similar. They say what’s the right stuff, maybe there design is not too shocking, but they do not
make the effort to speak and to say why they are special. This does not mean that you must
extract the shiny graphics to attract the attention. Quality means distilling all your unique
selling points in a coherent whole visual message.

4. FORM, STRUCTURE AND PURPOSE TO CONTENT

Content and design must be perfectly aligned to your site. Most people will not put in the effort
to understand what you are trying to say. The text blocks of small size, confused navigation and
obscured calls to action will turn off visitors. Designers work with your content so that
everything is clear to the people, and explains what you want to say.

5. POLISHED DETAILS

The choice of fonts, the character spacing, and contrast are the details make the difference in
the overall quality of your site. These sorts of nuances may not seem significant, but they
determine how readable and functional the website is.

6. OBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVE

You are the expert on your own business, but you are not an expert in designing web sites.
Sometimes, it’s better to compromise between what you want and what works for the web.
Quality website designing comes from the experience of how to translate the ideas in web
pages.

7. RELIABLE PARTNERSHIP

Business Owners and web designers have to work together to create a web site. The process
involves communication and compromise. If you are happy with the outcome, then the
designer of your website will be your instant go-to for the latest changes and additions.

8. ROOM FOR DEVELOPMENT

Design of quality built a solid basis for the improvements that you want to use after the initial
site is completed. If you want to add a new product or service, the site will already have a pretty
strong aesthetic that you do not need to go back to a square.
 3. What are static and dynamic websites?

3.1. Static Websites

There are many static web sites on the Internet, you will not able to tell immediately if it is
static, but if the appearance of the website is basic and is for a small business, and simply
provides information without bells and whistles, it could be a static web site. Static web sites
can only really be updated by someone with a knowledge of the development of a web site.
Static Web Sites are the least expensive to develop and host, and many small businesses still
use these to get a presence on the web.

a. Advantages of static websites

1. Develop quickly.
2. Can be develop much cheaply.

Good market flexibility is the main advantage of a static site - each page can be different if you
want to, to match the layout of different content, and that the designer is free to implement
the special effects that a client may request in a unique way on different pages. This feature
allows - for example an author may be a different theme for another book and associated pages
or perhaps for a series of books, in order to match the design of the cover or the context of the
history.

b. Disadvantages of static websites

1. Requires web development expertise to update site.

2. Site not as useful for the user.

The main problem with any static site appears when you want to update the content. Except if
you're familiar with HTML and design methods used in the site, then you need to go back to the
designer to have any content changes. Perhaps it is perfectly ok when a new page is required
which must design input, but if everything you want to do is to change a text, it can be a
nuisance for the client and the designer.
 3.2. Dynamic websites
These can be more expensive to develop initially, but the benefits are many. On a basic level, a
dynamic web site can give the website owner the opportunity to update and add new content
on the site. Dynamic Features of a site are limited only by the imagination.

A few examples of dynamic website features could be:

An e-commerce project, bulletin / discussion boards, intranet or extranet, Content

management system, possibility for the customers or users to download documents, possibility
for the administrators or users to create content or add information to a site (dynamic
publishing).

Dynamic web Sites have many more features and flexibility. Their initial configuration is more
complicated and uses more complex types of coding like PHP or ASP. However, once it has been
put in place, and style sheets have been put in place, the management of a dynamic web site is
much easier and fun, with the right CMS, the updating of the content, or to create new pages,
can be done without programming knowledge.

This means that changes can be made as often as you want, new pages, landing pages and
pages of the campaign may be added when you need it. Calls to action can be scripted and
strategically placed, new tenders downloaded when they are current, old, content not relevant
can be deleted. You can make your own website in the house using the materials and people.
There is no need to pay someone else to do the changes to the content of your web site.

a. Advantages of dynamic websites

1. Much more functional and efficient website.

2. Easier to update.
3. Good content brings people back to the site and helps in the search engines.
4. Can work as a system to allow staff or visitors to collaborate.

One of the main advantages of dynamic sites are that by connecting to databases you can easily
pull information in an organized manner and structured to create product pages or categories
of related products sorted in a variety of different ways depending on how the user wants to
view. This ability to connect to a database means that you can also create a content
management system - an interface that allows the customer to enter and manage the data via a
web-based series of administration pages. This content can be a text for their pages and images
to go with the text, or items in their range of products with the categories, specifications, for
the short term and the long variety descriptions, images, etc. in these two cases, it can be as
simple or as complex as the customer needs.

a. Disadvantages of dynamic websites

1. Slower and expensive to develop.

2. Hosting costs some more.

The main problem is the scalability. If you want to sell your products on your site and you have
a lot of them, then you may have to build pages for each, which can take a lot of effort, cost
and time. The design of a dynamic site is more fixed than static, because many pages are
essentially a model in which the data and the content is placed.

4. Major Website Technologies

4.1. Client-Side Technologies

a. XHTML

XHTML is a markup language designed for structuring the information for the presentation of
web pages. Rather than rely on WYSIWYG programs, we write all our XHTML by hand, ensure
that it is clean, valid and of the highest standard. This means that the pages have faster
download times possible, are visible on all browsers, are search engine friendly, and have the
maximum before the compatibility.

b. JQuery

JQuery is a free software and open source JavaScript code library of client-side scripts. Using
jQuery, web site developers can create animations, manage events, and integrating Ajax. In
short, jQuery simplifies JavaScript programming and allows you to easily use and enjoy rapid
web development. In addition, it is relatively easy to learn.
 c. CSS

CSS means cascading style sheets. It allow you to change the appearance of text (such as fonts,
colors, spacing) on the Web pages. You can also place items on the page, hidden some
elements, or change the appearance of the browser, such as changing the color of the scroll
bars in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

CSS controls the display of web pages in the browser, and allow the separation of the
presentation of the structure and content. CSS helps to ensure that the web pages are
presented in an accessible way to all visitors, on a wide range of media.

d. JavaScript (JScript/ECMAScript)

JavaScript is an interpreted scripting language commonly used on the Internet for the creation
of Web pages that respond to user actions, such as when a user moves the mouse pointer on
an image or clicks on a form menu. With CSS and HTML, JavaScript gives you the option to
create dynamic HTML pages.

JavaScript is typically used for client scripts; therefore, users can easily view JavaScript code
with the HTML code of the page. Although it can be used for server-side scripts, JavaScript
works better for visual animation (such as the modification of the image when the user moves
the mouse pointer on the latter) or validation of form fields.

Different browsers may implement the script JavaScript objects differently, but most of the
popular browsers support JavaScript.

4.2. Server-Side Technologies

a. PHP

PHP is a fast, great server-side scripting language that is used to create interactive, beautiful
and dynamic web sites. It is particularly well-suited to integrate with a range of different
databases.
 b. ASP.NET

An open source web application framework designed for web development to produce dynamic
web pages. Microsoft developed it to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, catchy
web applications and other web services.

ASP.NET is the next generation of server-side processing for ASP programming. You can write
ASP.NET code in Visual Basic, .NET, #C or any language supported by the .NET Framework.
Because ASP.NET is part of the .NET Framework, you can develop ASP.NET applications that use
the namespaces and classes in the .NET Framework.

If you plan to develop Web applications with ASP.NET, you must verify that your Web server
has the most recent version of the .NET Framework is installed.

c. XML/XSL

XML is a hardware and software independent markup language, designed for explaining and
transmitting information and content. It is set to become the best and most common tool for all
data manipulation and data transmission. XSL is a language for explaining, transforming and
formatting XML documents.

d. MySQL

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system that provides a powerful

and reliable database management for Web applications. MySQL work on Linux, Windows and
UNIX web servers.

PHP and MySQL are often used together to develop Web applications and server-side database
for processing. Because MySQL is an open source software development application, anyone
can download, install and work with it.

MySQL is a fast, open-source relational database management system that uses the popular
Structured Query Language (SQL). It is the ideal solution for most web sites need database
features and worked hand in hand with PHP

5. What are the Various Types of CMS?

 5.1. What is CMS?

CMS means content management system. It is a buzz word in the development of websites. The
web industry as it helps the site managers to present their information in front of public eyes, it
is useful to mention that the CMS does not have to be based on the web. Content management
systems are also used for the companies and organizations that have more large-scale needs.

A content management system is an application that provides functions for multiple users to
manage content, data or information from a web site, a project, or by the internet application.
Users can be assigned different permissions allowing them to access certain sections, or all the
contents of the project. This program offers a way to manage and maintain the flow in a
collaborative environment through a central interface. Generally, these content management
systems are based on the web and help them to run blogs, news sites and e-commerce.

Managing the content, means the editing, archiving, creation of reports, collaborating,
distributing data, content and information. Like blogs? Blogs are web sites that require a lot of
maintenance for them to remain current and relevant to the readers. There is a lot of content
to manage for a couple of people! You probably want to consider using a CMS to your make life
much easier.

5.2. Top CMS

Alright, now that you’ve got a general idea of CMS; let’s get to compare the best content
management systems available!

a. WordPress

WordPress (WP), began in 2003 as a platform for the blogs. Over the past 10 years WP has
probably become the most popular content management system in the world. Yes, what is that
special in WP that other content management systems have not? Well, first of all, it is really and
I mean really easy to use. You do not need knowledge of programming or technical skills to get
a website. If you decide to use WP all you have to do is to install, and then configure the
options.

There are hundreds of free templates to choose from to make the web site design easier than
ever. One of the best features of this CMS is the visual editor. As you can create and edit your
content to publish, the visual editor allows you to make changes quickly by pressing a few
buttons and see the results immediately (kind of like MS Word or paint).

In addition, the WP has a framework that is incredibly flexible and can be customized almost to
infinity. There are applications that you can install called the plug-in which you offer even more
features of the WP, as the rotation of the slideshows, videos, social media, viewer analytics and
the list continues. Thus, instead of spending $1000 for having someone else develop your
website - you can do that, for free. Yes, WordPress is absolutely free!

b. Drupal

Drupal is an open source content management system used by a number of popular Web sites,
even the White House web site developer has chosen the platform Drupal. There are a lot of
reasons why Drupal could be very useful for you. Unlike WordPress, Drupal gives you the
ultimate control on URL structure, or permanent link. In WordPress this may be an aspect of
frustration to fix as you have to go to the back-end. In Drupal, there is a global redirection
module that will be automatically 301 redirect (a permanent redirection) the internal Drupal
URL to the custom URL that you want to ensure that you have clean and custom URL's.

The ease of management for the users is also great and notable. Drupal was actually designed
to be a community web site for users to have the custom roles and access levels (as moderator,
the editor and webmaster) so it is an excellent site for blogs and the projects forum. Drupal is
also search engine friendly, with the CMS Drupal you can check your page titles and Meta tags.

For programming inclined (and not-so-inclined) Drupal content management system uses a
template engine PHP default theme. You by no means need to learn the PHP computer
language, but if you want to, or if you need pointers, Drupal has a theme developer guide to
help you start.

Really a nice feature that is unique to Drupal is the content construction kit that gives the user
the ability to customize each page of content such as a blog, classes, a reportage, podcast, etc.
You can create categories and ask Drupal how you want them to be displayed.
 c. Joomla

Joomla is often compared to WordPress and Drupal as equal but different CMS option. If you
run a site that is really heavy on the content, Joomla provides an administration interface that
you can totally handle. It seems to be the most user-friendly of the three, and is powerful
enough. Joomla may not have the nice research, user intuitive feature that WordPress has, or
the development of functions or customization features of Drupal. It is somewhere between
the two.

Unlike Drupal, Joomla supports more than just PHP as its application server and is
recommended by Apache. Joomla, like the two WordPress and Drupal also supports MySQL so
all of your basic needs are met. Another thing to note is Joomla is not SSL compatible which can
pose problems for users who are trying to engage in e-commerce. Joomla gives you the exact
option to clean the URL such as in Drupal, Resizing an image, hosting services, advertising
management, content planning, and management of contacts, data and metadata for
customization.

If you are looking to run e-commerce on your site, Joomla has extensions (plug-ins, add-ons)
which can be activated to assist the maritime transport, the payments, management of stocks,
taxes and subscriptions. And, Joomla is free!

6. CMS Comparison:

6.1. Drupal vs Joomla vs WordPress

WordPress (Best pick for starters, works great for small/medium sized websites & blogs)

Joomla (Works well for e-commerce type websites, requires some levels of technical coding)

Drupal (The hardest, but also the most powerful CMS)

6.2. WORDPRESS (Free, PHP-based)

a. Strengths
1. Huge developer community with plenty of documentation and tutorials available.
2. Free and paid plugins and specialized themes make it possible to create virtually any
kind of site with WordPress.
3. User-friendly dashboard for managing content.

b. Weaknesses
1. Can be overkill for basic sites.
2. A standard installation can have a lot of security issues, and is very vulnerable to attack
without additional security measures.
3. No official support outside some forums, where there’s a little chance for an official
response.

6.3. JOOMLA (Free, PHP-based)

a. Strengths
1. User authentication can be done with Open ID, Google, and LDAP, among others.
2. More than 7000 extensions.
3. Very active user community and tons of documentation available.

b. Weaknesses
1. Back-end isn’t as user-friendly as some other CMSs, though it’s still considerable.
2. Lack of high-quality themes when compared to some other CMSs.
3. Can be overkill for simple sites.

6.4. DRUPAL (Free, PHP-based)

a. Strengths
1. Robust community support, including IRC channels and face-to-face meet ups.
2. More than 6,000 modules, making Drupal highly extensible.
3. A large number of companies offering commercial support for Drupal.

b. Weaknesses
 1. Can be overkill for simple sites.
2. A lack of really high-quality free and commercial themes.
3. Theming system is fairly complicated.

7. Our Services
MyITSales is the ultimate place for you to design some best looking catchy websites and solving
other IT services. We understand your needs and we came to an innovative one-stop solution
to all your demands.

Our professionals work around the clock to provide the best ever services for website
designing. We take our work seriously and have a high esteem for the needs of its customers.
Our customer service staff will be happy to resolve any queries that you have. We are not only
trying to sell you our products, but we are trying to build lasting business relationships with our
customers.

And this is just a glimpse of satisfaction you gonna get here. Once you order from us, we do the
best ever work for you, and deliver the product right to your door. Order online, and you are
done, put your hands on the table and enjoy some music!

Our services are very reasonable and it will be difficult to find another dealer with the
combination of quality that we offer. But don't take our words for it. Visit MyITSales regularly,
browse through the web products, make an initial order and it’s not long before you would
recommend our products/services to all.

8. Conclusion
The phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web since its creation in the early 1990s has
changed the society in many ways. Use of the Internet entering in the average households, a
new series of career choice has arisen to meet the demand of consumers on the Internet.

Web Development is an occupation that exists only because of the enormous success of the
Internet. While the Internet was created for the first time for the exchange of information, the
advancement of the World Wide Web and its multiple capabilities has led us to a whole new
market.

Someone must have created all these web sites that we visit. Modern web publishing software
allows an average person to create a Web page and put it online. The best Web sites are
carefully designed so that website visitors can easily navigate their way around to find exactly
what they want. This is not so obvious. A qualified designer or Web developer is typically the
person responsible for the creation of this web site.

There is no single solution here; it depends on your goals, your technical skills, budget and what
you need for your site to do. For a simple blog or a brochure-type site, WordPress could be the
best choice (although very nice for non-developers, it is a flexible platform capable also of very
complex sites). For a complex and highly customized site requiring scalability and complex
content organization, the best choice would be Drupal. For something in between that has
facilitated a learning curve, Joomla can be the answer.

With both WordPress and Joomla, you can get a very wide range of services and options on the
menu to suit your needs; with Drupal, you'll be in the kitchen to what you want for you-even,
with all the privileges of the customization that this entails.