The Structural Approach to Web Design
Photo credit: rudiriet
When designing a website, several factors are taken into consideration. One of the main objectives that designers often are required to satisfy is the usability of the website. It is important to note that if you have specific objectives to promote user friendliness instead of aesthetics that a structure-first approach to designing web sites should be used. A structure first methodology, which can look like an unintuitive way to design web sites for visually oriented designers actually carry several advantages.
Structure-first web design approaches are pedagogical; the designers are required to conceptualize the design as a separate but interrelated step. They are also practical, if you consider the functionality and effectiveness of a site it is measured by the validity of solid HTML code, which requires a separation between structures of the document by using tags and aesthetics by using Cascading Style Sheets.
Taking on a structural perspective in web design ensures that the contents of your web site will maintain readability in cases where the styling rules are disabled in your user’s browser. In situations where the user browses the pages by using a handheld device, like cell phones your visual formatting and assistive technology like screen readers are often ignored. A structural focus leads to the generation of many flexible web pages, which are viewable by users in several ways. These pages are easily reformatted if necessary, and can easily be revised and updated.
Remember that although an aesthetic approach will provide you with more creative freedom; it comes with its own disadvantages. When designing content that needs fast access and is usability centric you must take into consideration that the demographic targeted for the web site’s specific function might not benefit from a visual approach. Projects which require database searches or make use of a web design to post a large quantity of research or analytical data will often need to restrict its visual limitation to providing graphical representation or navigation aids which will help its users find the specific information it is looking for in an accurate and speedy manner.
Taking on a structural approach to web design makes sure that the designer doesn’t fall into the death trap of creating an overly flamboyant page and get lost in his creative impulses. One of your major priorities as a web designer is to ensure the fluidity of your content in any web browsing consideration. If you decided to put a lot of visuals in your programming there is a higher chance that the page will do two things which are not favorable to the user; pages might load slowly and content will not be visible right away depending on their connection speed and several browsing situations will prevent your website from loading properly or from displaying as how you intended for its design.
There are various ways of creating your website, weather you decide to take on a structure-first approach to web design or take a visual approach it is important to consider the type of end users you plan to market your website to, chose whether to prioritize style or function and create informed decisions based on it.
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