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GCOM 360

Week 1 Critical Analysis

“Technical knowledge aside, what makes for a good Web designer?”

First of all, a good web designer knows himself/herself and what he/she can bring to the team. Creative Bloq Staff said, “Knowing what I do well allows me to leverage my strengths and make what I do fun.” [1] A good web designer reflects and evaluates what he/she is good at doing in terms of making a website. It is very important because making websites requires effective teamwork in most cases. For example, if you are good at both designing and coding, you could more easily collaborate with your programmer teammate. According to Creative Bloq Staff, “This is because interactive design requires business, creative, tech and marketing people to work together.”[2] When you understand your role well in a team-working environment, it will be beneficial to everyone who is working on the same project with you.

Secondly, a good web designer makes a website that revolves around their target users. Creative Bloq Staff mentioned, “It’s about working together to prioritize what features and functionality the users’ needs dictate.” [3] A good web designer helps their business client create a pleasant online experience for their target users. Who the target users are and what they want are what matter most. A good web designer knows that the key to the success of a website is to connect the business owner with its target users through good brand storytelling, in order to help solve problems and achieve goals for the users. The website that appeals to its users would be more likely to generate more business for the client.

Lastly, a good web designer knows how to handle stress and anxiety from work. Web designers work in a fast-paced working environment and often need to constantly learn new things, as the IT industry is a rapidly developing field. According to Aaron Morton, “By turning the problem into a question, you are directing your thinking towards finding a solution.”[4] He also said “Your brain is a goal seeking mechanism, so if you ask it a question you prompt it to find an answer.”[5] By turning problems into questions, the stress and anxiety generated from work could be decreased tremendously. A good designer knows the art of looking at a problem in a different way, in order to channel his/her energy and thought process into a positive direction.

References

“Jump from graphic to web design in seven easy steps”. Creative Bloq Staff. July 14, 2016.
“Jump from graphic to web design in seven easy steps”. Creative Bloq Staff. July 14, 2016.
“Jump from graphic to web design in seven easy steps”. Creative Bloq Staff. July 14, 2016.
“Why You Need to Ask More Creative Questions”. Aaron Morton. August 6, 2013.
“Why You Need to Ask More Creative Questions”. Aaron Morton. August 6, 2013.

GCOM 360

Week 1 Glossary

ISP

ISP is the abbreviation for Internet Service Provider. ISPs provide services that help people get on the Internet with unique IP addresses, allowing them to browse, upload, and download information from the Internet. For example, Xfinity with Comcast is my ISP at home.

HTTP

HTTP is short for HyperText Transfer Protocol. HyperText is the text that is used on electronic devices. Some texts of it are inserted with links, so with one click, readers can be taken to another page. HyperText information is interconnected by those links. Protocol is the rule used between different computers that formulate how to break down and put together transferred information correctly. HTTP is the rule of how HyperText packets are transferred correctly between the user computer and server computer. It’s like an instruction for doing a puzzle, both computers follow this protocol so they make the puzzle correctly, thus they receive and send the correct information.

DNS

DNS means Domain Name System. It converts the normal website addresses we use into IP addresses that computers can understand. IP addresses are like ID card numbers for websites, every website has its unique IP address. For example, when we type http://google.com in web browser, it doesn’t really understand which website we want to visit until the DNS converts http://google.com into 172.217.18.14 for us. This is because computers communicate with each other using numbers.

URL

URL is short for Uniform Resource Locator. It is the unique address of a website or a document. Every resource on the Internet has its own unique address, same as the addresses on maps in the real world. By typing the corresponding URL in a web browser we can find any specific resource on the Internet.

GUI

GUI is the abbreviation for Graphical User Interface. It is the most widely used interface on electronic devices nowadays. The GUI contains icons and graphic symbols that resemble our real world experiences. Thus, it creates an easier and familiarized experience when users interact with electronic devices.

FTP

FTP means File Transfer Protocol. It is a method for transferring files between a client server and a host server within a network. With FTP, files from one computer can be uploaded to and downloaded from another computer correctly, using an FTP client.

CMS

CMS is short for Content Management System. It is used for editing and managing online contents. CMS is intuitive and offers a lot of templates and designs that are ready to use. Without any knowledge of programming, people can use CMS to build their own websites. For example, WordPress is a popular CMS.

W3S

W3S is the abbreviation for World Wide Web Consortium. It is an international organization working on developing web standards to ensure the long-term growth for the Web. They also provide learning and training resources for developer and computer science students to improve their web development knowledge.

HTML

HTML means HyperText Markup Language. The structure of a website is written using HTML. It is an important tool for making a website. HTML is used to mark up elements by grouping them with tags on a webpage. When a browser reads through the HTML lines, it recognizes those marked-up elements and then presents them to us in a way that we recognize and easily understand.

CSS

CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is another important tool along with HTML and JavaScript for creating a website. A website’s style is created by writing CSS in a separate style document. CSS controls the visual presentation of a website by effectively editing the layout, font, color, background, and other effects.