Unit Details
In this post-PC era, filled with smartphones, tablets and wearable devices we are online 24x7x365 yet many businesses lack the optimisation needed to meet the shift in online behaviour; although the ability to communicate with customers is at an all-time high, connecting with them has never been harder.
Ultimately the goal of most websites is to have interested visitors contact you to get more information and hopefully become customers and clients.
You should make this step as easy as possible for the user by finding the right balance between ‘accessibility’ and ‘scannability’. As a user you need to be able to scan through a site to quickly identify the information you are after or where you need to go.
How many times have you tapped on a Google Search result on your mobile phone, only to find yourself looking at a webpage where the text was too small, the links were tiny, and you had to scroll sideways to see all the content? This usually happens when the website has not been optimized to be viewed on a mobile phone.
This course introduces the fundamental concepts, tools, and learning paths for web design. Outline learning paths for where to go next, touching on subjects such as standards and accessibility, responsive design, and the three core web technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
If you want to get up and running fast, check out the module on getting online, choosing a domain name and web host, and getting around the backend of a standard website. Finally, we will touch base on some widely used SEO Techniques.
Learning objectives
- Learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- What is web design?
- What is a web designer?
- Learning to code
- Choosing a web host
- Working with a CMS
- Exploring how websites are structured
- Choosing your framework or software
- Designing with standards and accessibility in mind
Introduction
This unit is designed to introduce you to the fundamental concepts, learning approaches, and essential tools for anyone who is just starting out in web design and development. First, you will explore some of the very basics of web design, and let you experiment a little with the three fundamental technologies that drive it.
These are lessons that will let you play around with the code a little bit and get a feel for what is involved in creating a web page. After that you will take a deeper look into what it means to be a web professional, and the various areas of web design and development that you might be interested in specialising.
Next, you will dive into the ways that can get you online quickly, even if you are just starting to learn the skills. You will also look at the tools available to web designer and developers and how to choose the tool that is right for you.
