Tim Berners-Lee published what is considered to be the first website in August 1991. Berners-Lee was the first to combine Internet communication (which had been carrying email and the Usenet for decades) with hypertext (which had also been around for decades, but limited to browsing information stored on a single computer, such as interactive CD-ROM design). Websites are written in a markup language called HTML, and early versions of HTML were very basic, only giving a website’s basic structure (headings and paragraphs), and the ability to link using hypertext. This was new and different from existing forms of communication - users could easily navigate to other pages by following hyperlinks from page to page.

As the Web and web design progressed, the markup language changed to become more complex and flexible, giving the ability to add objects like images and tables to a page. Features like tables, which were originally intended to be used to display tabular information, were soon subverted for use as invisible layout devices. With the advent of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), table-based layout is commonly regarded as outdated. Database integration technologies such as server-side scripting and design standards like W3C further changed and enhanced the way the Web is made. As times change, websites are changing the code on the inside and visual design on the outside with ever-evolving programs and utilities.

A web site is a marketing tool but in basis is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. A web site might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page. Multimedia and diseño web is the key for a success website.

There are many aspects (design concerns) in this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects may emerge. For non-commercial web sites, the goals may vary depending on the desired exposure and response. For typical commercial web sites, the basic aspects of design are:

The content: the substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.

The usability: the site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.

The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.

The visibility: the site must also be easy to find via most, if not all, major search engines and advertisement media.

A web site typically consists of text and images. Since a website can be a business, selling and trading on internet is comercio electronico.

Once a web site is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet.

Once published, the web master may use a variety of techniques to increase the traffic that the web site receives. This may include submitting the web site to a search engine posicionamiento google, exchanging links with other web sites, creating affiliations with similar web sites, etc.

Multidisciplinary requirements

Web site design crosses multiple disciplines of information systems, information technology and communication design. The web site is an information system whose components are sometimes classified as front-end and back-end. The observable content (e.g. page layout, user interface, graphics, text, audio) is known as the front-end. The back-end comprises the organization and efficiency of the source code, invisible scripted functions, and the server-side components that process the output from the front-end. Depending on the size of a Web development project, it may be carried out by a multi-skilled individual (sometimes called a web master), or a project manager may oversee collaborative design between group members with specialized skills .

Times have changed on the internet and back when you thought coding couldn’t be made any easier for you to style your websites you were badly wrong. CSS has taken the basic HTML coding to the next level and again when you thought your coding couldn’t look any neater, you were wrong. CSS doesn’t need the likes of HTML tables and what a fantastic advantage CSS is and i’ll explain why.

In the old days of HTML coding, website designers would have to use the HTML tables tags which made the coding look a mess, not only that without the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) coders would be coding for a lot longer which means a lot of time was wasted and a lot of headaches and hair pulling would occur. This all stopped when CSS was introduced and don’t get me wrong, a lot of cross browser problems still occur but it’s such a good transformation to the industry all this is worth it.

Cross browser problems do occur a lot more frequent with the use of CSS because some browsers compile the CSS functions differently and cause the website to be displayed differently between most common browsers such as IE7 and FF. There are many myths and different information on the internet which discusses cross browser compatibility and how coders should only code for the latest browers which are the likes of IE8, FF, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari etc. None of this information is true and if you do only code for the latest browsers, a huge percentage of internet viewers still use Internet Explorer 6 so you’re not catering for a huge amount of internet users who can’t view the sites you code properly.

There are many hacks and different CSS functions you can use to cater for the whole internet browsing industry and all you need to do is learn to code for one browser such as FF (as recommended by professionals, given that IE7 doesn’t compile the codes correctly) then once you’ve mastered to code for one browser you can make the specific changes so your site is viewable in all browsers and on all systems.