Web  Design

Two Days

This course is for people who find themselves with web design responsibilities but who have had no formal design training. 

The course will highlight the essential building blocks of good design, what works and what doesn't on screen and how to make the best use of type, space and colour. You will also cover usability issues and highlight how to solve common web design problems.

This course is designed to help you develop new skills and improve your confidence when making design decisions.

• Fundamental concepts of Web Design
  • How to learn by example
  • Finding and assessing critical data prior to the design process
  • Creating a target user profile
  • Incorporating the real world brand into the online world
  • The essentials of good navigation
• The Design process
  • Applying the principles of composition to web page design
  • The rule of thirds
  • understanding white space
  • Fixed and floating layouts
  • Designing for usability and accessibility
  • Avoiding commnn pitfalls
  • Good design resources
  • Browser differences and how your design can be affected
  • Online resources for page layout testing
• Information architecture
  • Generating the site map
  • Translating business models to a web site
  • Psychological principles relating website navigation
  • Options for creatng the web site structure
  • User testing
  • The tools and languages of the Web
    • HTML
    • XHTML
    • XML
    • CSS
    • Javascript
    • Dreamweaver
    • Fireworks
    • Photoshop
    • Flash
    • Third party utilities
    • • Everything you need to know about Colour on the Web
        • • RGB and other colour models
          • Hexadecimal and Web safe colours
          • Converting existing brand colours for Web use
          • Generating a colour scheme
          • The emotion of colour
          • The science of colour
          • Creating a brand identity based on colour
          • Online resources for creating and testing colour
      • Effective use of text on the Web
        • • Typography within the context of Web design
          • Limitations of text on the Web compared to the printed page
          • How CSS has changed typography on the Web
          • Creating CSS styles
          • The rules of text usage on the Web
          • Tricks to encourage people to read your text
          • How to deliver your message efficiently
          • Text legibility
      • Images, buttons and banners
        • • What is image compression and why it is essential
          • Using Photoshop or Fireworks to optimise images
          • Keeping files sizes small and images sharp
          • Creating logos, buttons and icons in Photoshop
          • Slicing images and web page designs in Photoshop
          • How to use images effectively
          • Rules for making images stand out on the page
          • How to select and organise the perfect images
      • Search engines
        • • How users can find you on the Web
          • Meta tags, Alt tags and other tips to make your pages searchable
          • Overview of the current search engines
          • Creating logos, buttons and icons in Photoshop
          • Slicing images and web page designs in Photoshop
          • How to use images effectively
          • Rules for making images stand out on the page
          • How to select and organise the perfect images
      • Publishing your site on the Web
        • • Buying a domain name
          • Choosing a suitable host
          • FTP (File Transfer Protocol)