How to Design and Write Web Pages Today

Book excerpt: This unique guidebook lays the foundations of contemporary mobile-first, responsive web design, offering writers, designers, and those who teach them a complete and up-to-date approach to web design. Are you looking to learn web design the right way? Not by using an off-the-shelf software package, but by creating customized sites in a way that gives you full control? This guide provides that ability even if you have no previous coding skills or experience. One of the critical challenges of modern web design is being able to write for the mobile web to reach those increasingly mobile-connected users. How to Design and Write Web Pages Today addresses this key objective while also explaining how to deliver improved experiences for users of desktop-style devices based on the constraints and challenges of mobile design. This user-friendly tutorial begins with background information to enable a better understanding of the web and its purpose and function as well as how to generate material for a website. Readers then learn about the three overarching concerns in the short- and long-term viability and usefulness of websites: accessibility, usability, and sustainability. Key technologies and techniques for web design—such as the HTML and CSS languages to the conceptual foundations of grid-based design—are next, followed by a thorough explanation of how to publish a site on the open web, from creating a viable site architecture to automating the publishing of content to the open web.