What Does a Web Developer Do?

<p>Web development is a craft that includes many different technologies. However, at the core of it all the responsibility of the web developer is to ensure that the client gets a website that does exactly what he wants it to do. There is a huge difference between being a web developer and a web designer, although their roles do have some overlap, the web designer will rarely be involved with any of the actual code that makes up the web site.</p><p><strong>1. Plan The Design And Functionality Of The Website</strong></p><p>It usually takes a while before the web developer actually starts to write the code that makes up the web site. When you get the contract for a web project there is a lot of planning and analysis that needs to take place. Usually the customer requires the website to function in a certain way. It is up to the project manager and his development team to estimate how long this will take.</p><p>During this stage the web designer will most likely participate to make sure that his design works with the customers requirements. Indeed, the requirements will most likely include details about how the customer wants the web site to appear.</p><p><strong>2. Create The Business Logic As Specified By The Customer</strong></p><p>When the planning and analysis stage has been completed the web developer will start developing the website. This often includes working with both client side technologies such as HTML, Java Script and CSS and server side technologies such as PHP and.NET.</p><p>A good web developer needs to be proficient with many technologies. There is no such thing as a pure HTML developer!</p><p>Knowing which tools to use for each part of the web site is instrumental to the success of the project.</p><p><strong>3. Implementing The Web Design</strong></p><p>You might think that when the web developer is done developing the web site the web designer would start implementing the web site. Even though they often work together it is usually the web developer who is tasked with implementing the web design on the web site.</p><p>It is critical that the web designer and the web developer work together on this!</p><p><strong>4. Testing, Testing, Testing</strong></p><p>Testing is arguably the most important, and most often neglected, part of a web development project. If there are critical errors on the website when it is launched the customer is at risk of losing a lot of money and certainly a lot of credibility.</p><p>Having said that the web developer should not be responsible for testing the web site. It is critically important that it is tested by someone who has not been involved in the actual development of the web site.</p><p><strong>Would you believe</strong> - These 4 stages often takes place at the same time. Iterative development has become increasingly popular, meaning that parts of the website will most likely be tested while other parts of the site is still in development.</p><p>Modern web development include many different tasks, but it all starts with the fundamentals.</p>
<div><div id="article-resource">
<p>And now I would like to invite you to claim your Free Instant Access to the best HTML web development course on the Internet when you visit <a target="_new" href="http://webdevcourse.mostlyclientside.com">http://webdevcourse.mostlyclientside.com</a></p><p>From Michael B. Humphrey and MostlyClientSide.com.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Michael_B_Humphrey">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_B_Humphrey</a>
</p></div>

Is Your Web Designer Ripping You Off?

<p>Nobody likes being ripped off - especially if they're in business.</p><p>Yet most businesses are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to their web designer for shoddy, substandard work. Are you?</p><p>Luckily, there's a quick and easy way to find out.</p><p>Go to:<a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://validator.w3.org">http://validator.w3.org</a>, type in your website address and click on the "Check" button.</p><p>If the page you see says "failed validation" in red writing, you might need to speak to your web designer - especially if there are more than a handful of errors.</p><p><b>Is your web designer one of the cowboys?</b></p><p>Unless you own a cattle ranch, you probably don't want to employ cowboys. You certainly wouldn't put up with substandard work from a builder or electrician, would you? What about an accountant that didn't understand tax laws, would you want them handing your finances?</p><p>Well, most web designers produce websites that are shoddy and substandard - and worst of all <b>they don't even know it</b>.</p><p><b>How can I tell if my site isn't up to standard?</b></p><p>Many professions and industries have standards. With some professions, like medicine or law, you need a qualification before you even start doing it. Other industries, like food processing or construction, aren't so strict about academic qualifications, but they do have standards that have to be met - like health and safety or food hygiene standards.</p><p>There's no academic qualification you need in order to become a web designer. All you need is a computer with internet access and the confidence (or in some cases arrogance) to call yourself a web designer.</p><p>However, although many people (and most web designers) don't know it - there are standards for websites.</p><p>What's more - it's really easy to test your website to see if it's up to standard. All you need to do is visit a website (<a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://validator.w3.org/">http://validator.w3.org/</a>) and you can test your site.</p><p><b>What are Web Standards?</b></p><p>Websites are programmed using a computer language called HTML. There's a right way to program HTML and there's a wrong way. The right way to program HTML is called "Web Standards," anything else is the wrong way.</p><p>The difference between the right and wrong way to program a website is technical - so if you're a business owner you don't need to understand the details.</p><p>However, you do need to understand that if your web designer hasn't used Web Standards it means:</p>Your site will do worse in Search Engines - so you'll get less visitors&#13;
It will take longer to download - so you'll lose more of the visitors you do get&#13;
It could cost you more to maintain the website&#13;
It's harder (and more expensive) to make changes to the website&#13;
Up to 40% of people might not be able to see your website properly because they use different type of computer or web browser than your web designer.&#13;
Your site is probably not going to be accessible to people with disabilities - which could mean you could fall foul of your local disability discrimination laws&#13;
<p>Of course, you might not have all these problems if your web designer hasn't used Web Standards - but you'll certainly have some of them.</p><p><b>If my site fails to validate does that mean it doesn't use Web Standards?</b></p><p>Not necessarily.</p><p>The W3C validator (<a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://validator.w3.org/">http://validator.w3.org/</a>) is a useful tool for checking if your site uses high-quality HTML. However, it's not a 100% guarantee.</p><p>It's possible for a site to fail the validation on one or two minor points. If this is the case it's not a major problem, although you could ask your web designer to correct them.</p><p>However, if your site has dozens of hundreds of errors this is bad news.</p><p>It's also possible to for your website to pass the validator and still use out-of-date techniques, however this is much less likely.</p><p><b>Should web designers use Web Standards?</b></p><p>Yes.</p><p>To put it bluntly, if you don't know web standards, you're really not entitled to call yourself a "professional" web designer.</p><p>There are some occasions when it's acceptable to use non Web Standards techniques for practical reasons, but it has to be an informed decision.</p><p><b>How many web designers program websites the wrong way?</b></p><p>Unfortunately, most web designers program websites the wrong way. The sad thing is that many of them don't even <b>know</b> about Web Standards.</p><p>There are plenty of web designers that do use Web Standards, but they're in a minority.</p><p>Because there are no entry barriers to web design, anybody can set up as a web designer. That means there's plenty of choice but it also means there are plenty of cowboys producing badly-programmed websites.</p><p><b>What do I do if my website hasn't been created using Web Standards?</b></p><p>Well, you've got a couple of choices.</p><p>Firstly, you could contact the web designer that created your site and ask them why they didn't produce your site with Web Standards.</p><p>If your site is more than 1 or 2 years old it isn't reasonable to expect your site to have been created with Web Standards, as they weren't a well-known technique then.</p><p>You might find that your web designer now uses Web Standards and would be able to redesign your website so that it uses them.</p><p>They may be willing to do this for free, as a courtesy, or they may charge you for this.</p><p><b>Can't I just sue them?</b></p><p>I'm not a lawyer and couldn't offer legal advice.</p><p>However, I suspect that unless you have a written contract with your web designer specifying that the site should be built using Web Standards techniques you would find a legal route difficult.</p><p><b>What are my other options?</b></p><p>If your current web designer is unable or unwilling to change your site so that it uses Web Standards you could find another web designer who is able to redesign your site using Web Standards.</p><p>Use Google or Yellow Pages to find web designers in your local area and then contact them to see if they use web standards.</p><p>If they say yes, check some of their sites using <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://validator.w3.org/">http://validator.w3.org/</a>.</p><p><b>What if I don't have a website yet?</b></p><p>If you don't have a website yet, or are planning a new one, make sure you choose a web designer that uses Web Standards to create their websites.</p><p><b>Resources</b></p><p><a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://validator.w3.org/">http://validator.w3.org/ - HTML Validator</a></p>
<div><div id="article-resource">
<p><b>Richard Quick</b> is the author of the forthcoming book "Web Design in easy steps."</p><p>He has a background in designing websites for multinational companies and works as a freelance web designer in Cornwall [http://www.richardquickdesign.com], England.</p><p>Richard also runs a site selling Cornish Pasties [http://www.thepasty.com].</p><p>More Details about web design cornwall [http://www.richardquickdesign.com] here.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Richard_Quick">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Quick</a>
</p></div>

Adhering to Web Standards to Improve Business

<p>Taking web standards into account when designing a web site may not be a primary concern for many site owners, but when it comes to finding an extra edge to improve their business, they are more than willing to do anything required to increase revenues. Let's see how complying with Web standards can help a business web site.</p><p>What are the Web Standards?</p><p>On the Web, the main standards are the languages used when creating web sites. The most wide-spread ones are HTML, XHTML and CSS. HTML or XHTML are used to create the backbone of web sites - the structure. CSS, in turn, is used to style, format and position the structure and content.</p><p>What is Web Standards Compliance?</p><p>Put simply, web standards compliance is using web languages correctly. This involves using HTML tags properly and the way they were and are intended to be used. For instance, one of the most common mistakes against the web standards is using table tags for layout, while the correct usage is to use them only for tabular data (information to be put in tables).</p><p>Advantages of Web Standards Compliance</p><p>Creating quality, Web standards compliant code has a number of benefits:</p><p>o Web site forward compatibility</p><p>o Web site increased site download speed</p><p>o Web site browser compatibility</p><p>o Web site easier site maintenance</p><p>o Web site broader target audience</p><p>Olive eBusiness in New Delhi, India has over a decade experience in <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.oliveglobal.com/web-site-design.html">web site design</a> and development. For more information on how to <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.oliveglobal.com/web-site-design.html">design a website</a> adhering to the web standards, contact us.</p>
<div><div id="article-resource">
<p><a target="_new" href="http://www.oliveglobal.com">Web Design Company</a></p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ashish_Sinha">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ashish_Sinha</a>
</p></div>