Designing Web Sites and How It's Done...

The Web is Communication - it is a visual, aural, technical and literal technology. The Web is Language, it is built using technical languages, and has rules, grammar and syntactical rules, just like our own languages. The Web is ‘Home’ for millions of people and business and all their Information - best use and presentation of this Information for Communication is key. How is your information stored and displayed?

Think of web design like building a house. When you build a house, or pay for one to be built for you, a certain number of things need to happen.

You need to have ‘land’ to build the house on
The Land in this case is a web name or domain that is hosted by an ISP, on to which your business or personal web site will be hosted. This becomes your place in cyberspace, and so long as you own the Land on which it sits, it is yours to do with as you will.
You need to employ a Qualified Builder
In this instance, that builder is me, a trained designer using the latest and correct building techniques and Web Standards to create a visually appealing, yet fully functional and accesible web site.
Building Codes and Standards
Building codes and standards in web sites, just as in houses, are regularly reviewed and updated to ensure the integrity of the structure and finish. Anything less is a compromise. Up–to–date Web Designers such as myself use XHTML and CSS to control the way the web site ‘looks’, functions and performs.
Tables and Frames
If you begin to talk to a designer that starts to discuss using tables and frames for your design, then you are talking to someone who is out of touch with ‘Worlds Best Practice’. Tables are no longer used for (nor should ever have been used for...) ‘layout and presentation’ &ndash or the way a site looks and appears visually; tables have their place and that place is for including tabular data in web pages, i.e., Name, Address, Suburb information, or Movie, Movie Title, Year etc..
Two distinct disadvantages arise when using frames and tabular data incorrectly
1) Frames and tables are not easily read by Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) tools and robots, nor by your viewers who have vision or sight issues (more common than you might think), thus excluding your site from achieving good or great rankings in search companies like Google™ or Yahoo™, and also excludes a large number of potential clients.
2) Web sites built using tables for presentation are labouriously slow in loading because of all the extra coding required to make them look good or readable, and even slower to alter or change information. In short, you pay a web designer to spend hours changing information because they choose to continue using outmoded design tools and standards.
Think about your web site for a moment as though it is a parcel you want to be delivered to multiple recipients. Your costs to store and mail them are based on their size and weight. If the parcel is full of outdated, overbloated code and heavy with unecessary presentational elements, then 100 of them is going to expensive to deliver. If, however, the parcel is light, small yet still powerful, you can store and send 300 for the same amount. In short, you spend more money on your site than you need to, and will continue to do so in the long term.
You need to supply materials, or have them purchased on your behalf
You supply the builder with the basic copy or words for your site, the images and your vision of how it will look, and then, working with your designer, flesh out a plan for the web site that will represent you. If you are unable to do this to the level you wish, in terms of the visual and functional aspects, your designer should be able to do all these things for you, and come back to you with a working model of what the finished project might look like. As a professional designer, that is what I am trained to do.
The Quality of the materials are Paramount to the final outcome
The better your designer at their profession, the better the tools they use, the better the supplied images/artwork etc. are, the more visually and functionally appealing your online presence will be to the client/enduser. T I G DH Dot Com uses the best tools, skills, techniques and experience available to achieve these results.

The XHTML is used to provide the footings, foundations and framework of the house. Then CSS is used to render and colour the walls, hang the doors and put the welcome mat out. The more solid and robust your footings and framework, the more confidence you have that your ’building’ will withstand the changes of the season and dictates of fashion. I have a good eye for detail and believe in getting things right the first time. Creativity for me is a way of life, not just a vocation.

Influences

I'm influenced by much that is minimal, particularly Japanese Garden Design and building techniques. The Western Minimalist movement also appeals, but most of all I am influenced by my clients. There is a Zen aesthetic that I admire too, and daily interaction with Judo and Zen meditation have shaped my creative bent.

I am a firm believer in building adaptable, flexible and “Bulletproof” sites, not just how they look, but how they function behind the scenes. Here is what Dan Cederholm, author of “Bulletprooof Web Design” and design brain behind Simple Bits Web Design company has to say:

“Out in the nonvirtual world, a bulletproof vest never guarantees complete, 100% protection, but rather being bulletproof is something that’s constantly strived for. You’re far better off wearing a bulletproof vest than if you weren’t. The same rule applies to Web design and the techniques described in this book. By increasing a page’s flexibility and taking the necessary steps to ensure that it’s readable in as many circumstances as possible, we’re making a real difference in our work. It’s an ongoing process, and one that becomes easier when utilizing Web standards such as semantic XHTML and CSS to construct compelling, yet adaptable, designs.”

T I G D H Dot Com builds only high–quality, lightweight and powerful websites so that you don't have to worry about bandwidth drain, storage and data access issues, or whether your email forms will get saturated by spam. Harmony of Design.