Leading questions about web design
We will continue to develop this list as the course proceeds. Add your own question using the form at the bottom of this page.
- What are reasons for creating web sites?
- What is the process for creating a web site?
- What are individual roles in creating a web site?
- What is the W3C and why do web designers care?
- Why do some web sites fail?
- What are successful design conventions on the web? ...unsuccessful design conventions?
- What does it mean to design for “above the fold”? Approximate this location in pixels.
- What is HTML and what is its function on the World Wide Web? How do web browsers process HTML code?
- What is an HTML tag? How do tags form containers? What is an attribute? ...a default attribute? ...a value?
- What are examples of the variances in HTML code processing that can be found across web browsers? ...across computer platforms? ...across Internet access devices?
- Why should you consider learning HTML when web editors can do the job?
- What file management conventions make sense for your own web projects?
- What is the difference between local and remote file storage?
- What is significant about the different versions of HTML and why is Transitional XHTML 1.0 currently recommended as a standard?
- Why should you include a doctype statement at the beginning of all of your web pages?
- Why is information chunked on web sites?
- What methodologies are available for web site navigation?
- When would you use each of the four variations of the anchor tag?
- What happens if your web site does not contain a file called index.html?
- How can you use the image tag to get your picture to come in right? When do you need to use the image alignment attribute? ...the size attribute? ...the alt attribute?
- Why are templates a key to successful web site design?
- What is the value to a library item, sometimes called an include file?
- How can tables be employed for either tabular data or as a layout device?
- How should you choose between the GIF and JPEG and PNG image formats? Which formats allow transparency?
- For historical reference, what is the web safe color palette? ...the hexadecimal color notation scheme?
- What is the difference between content, structure, and presentation?
- What is "image slicing" and when would it be appropriate to use?
- What is the value of using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in addition to HTML?
- What are the differences between external, internal, and inline CSS code references?
- Describe the differences between tables for layout and the use of divs (divisions).
- When would it be valuable to use a table that combines static and dynamic parts?
- What should web designers know about accessibility, ADA compliance, and WAI?
- What is an e-mail form and what are two benefits and two disadvantages?
- Why is search engine optimization (SEO) important? Name five basic SEO techniques.
- What are meta tags, why are they important, and how are they used?
- What aren’t frames promoted as part of current web design techniques? ...when would you use iframes?
- Debate this issue: Scrolling or paging, which makes sense?
- Debate this issue: Clutter or white space, which should be emphasized?
- Debate this issue: Pop-up windows or not?
- Debate this issue: static (a.k.a fixed or absolute) layout vs. dynamic (a.k.a fluid or liquid) layout vs. a hybrid of the two?
- Examine web sites and deduce what HTML, CSS, and scripts were used to achieve the design.
- Describe the differences bettween "class" and "id" web page elements.
- What devices are available to make a web site more interactive?
- What is a guestbook and how does that differ from an e-mail form?
- What is Google Analytics and how is that invoked on a web site?
- What is JavaScript and what can it add to a web site?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages to including Adobe Spry elements in your site?
- What is the impact of Web 2.0 on web design?
- What is a "deprecated HTML element" and why should you care?
