Web Design & Development – What They Are And The Best School To Pursue Them In Ghana
The Beauty of Web Design and Development
Computer Science is a very broad industry with lots of branches or categories. This diversity gives tech enthusiasts or anybody at all who wants to make a career out of it a wide array of different paths and opportunities to choose from. In this article, I would be talking about two closely related career paths under computer science; Web Design and Web Development.
Info Pages & Links for Prospective Students
Before we even dive into the details, let us be on level grounds of what a website is.
What Is A Website?
A site or website is a central location of web pages that are related, connected to each other by hyperlinks, and accessed by visiting the home page of the website using a browser. A website can also be a group of similar network web resources such as web pages and multimedia content which is typically identified with a common domain name and published on at least one web server (wealthbankers.com, for example). The web pages can be considered as the building blocks of a website since they host all the elements and functions that make up the website, such as the texts, media, and commands.
Websites come in endless designs (the good, the bad and the ugly) and varieties such as news sites, blogs, e-commerce, portfolio as well as social media sites.
Now that we are on the same page, let’s dive in.
Web Design
Web design can be defined as the design or outlook of websites that are displayed on the internet. It also talks of the user experience aspects, as well as the responsiveness of a website. It should not be confused with web development, as in other words, it focuses on the design of the website whiles web development focuses on developing that design into a fully functioning website.
Since web design focuses mainly on the design aspects of a website, it uses many of the key visual elements as all types of design such as:
Layout: This the arrangement of elements on web pages such as the graphics, ads, and text. The key goal is to help the user find the information they seek at a glance. The layout thus includes maintaining the balance, consistency, and integrity of the design.
Color: The color code of a website depends on the preferences of the owner and the purpose of the site. It can range from simple black-and-white to multi-colored, to monochrome.
Graphics: Graphics includes logos, photos, clipart or icons, all of which enhance the web design. For user-friendliness, these need to be placed appropriately, blending in the color and content of the web page, maintaining its responsiveness.
Fonts: The use of fonts is also a matter of preference. Permitted the right fonts are used, it can enhance the aesthetics of the design. However, most web browsers can only read a select number of fonts, known as “web-safe fonts”, so that should be kept in mind.
Content: The content includes all the media files present on a web page such as videos, images, audio, articles, etc. Content and design can work together to enhance the message of the site through visuals and text. Written text should always be relevant and useful, so as not to confuse the reader and to give them what they want so they will remain on the site.
Web Development
Web development (aka web programming) is the process of taking a web design – which has been created by a client web designer – and turning it into a website. This is done by writing lines and lines of complicated code, using a variety of languages. Web development is a not-so-easy job, and web developers have quite a difficult task because they essentially have to take a language understood by humans, such as English, and translate it into languages that computers understand, such as Python or HTML.
There are three types of web developers. These are;
Front End Developers
A front-end developer takes the design of the website and writes the code needed to implement it on the web. A decent front-end web developer will be fluent in at least three programming languages – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They only work on the front level (the one visible to the user) hence their name.
Back End Developers
While it may seem like front-end developers have a difficult job making sure that a website looks great, works well, and contains the correct content, back-end developers have a much more difficult work. Back-end developers deal with the server-side of the website. They develop all the systems needed to get the website up and running, such as the database, the hosting, content management systems, among others. In simple terms, back-end developers build the engines that keep the websites running and the front-end developers build it the body and beautify it. They code with languages such as PHP, Java, Python, and Ruby
Full Stack Developers
As their name suggests, full-stack developers are both good at the front-end and the back-end thus they can handle the work of both sides. Full-stack developers are mostly the advanced type of web developers, with numerous years of work experience.
Web design and web development are two of the hottest and fastest-growing currently since almost every business want to have a web presence. It is also one of the most flexible career opportunities out there nowadays. So if you are considering a career in tech, you should definitely consider them.
Where To Learn Web Design and Web Development in Ghana
If you have decided to take up one of these as your career path and you are in search of a good school here in Ghana to learn it, then it should be nowhere else than DevWorldTechAcademy.
DevWorld Tech Academy (DWTA) is an IT school located at Ashaley Botwe School Junction, in Accra. It easily one of the best IT schools I have come across here in Ghana. They have a unique method of teaching that helps the students to get practical knowledge through real-time projects and practicals. These programs they have are as follows:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Data Science
- Cloud Computing
- Game, Software, Mobile Development
- Programming
- Cyber Security
- Computer Ethics
- Digital, Graphic and Product Design
Under the faculty of Design, in which Web Design and Development treated, the study programs available are as follows:
- Responsive Website Development and Design – Full Stack
- Web Design & Application for Everybody (PHP) – Full Stack
- Full Stack Web and Multi-Platform Mobile App Development
- Full-Stack Web Development with React
- Ruby on Rails Web Development and Advanced WordPress (PHP)– Themes & Plugins Development
- Responsive Website Development and Design – Full Stack
- Web Design & Application for Everybody (PHP) – Full Stack
- Full Stack Web and Multi-Platform Mobile App Development
- Full-Stack Web Development with React
- Ruby on Rails Web Development
- Advanced Word Press (PHP)– Themes & Plugins Development.
A direct discussion with the director of the school, Mr. Franklin, revealed other programs they have as part of their tuition package. These are student mentorship, career guidance, path programs, among others. These he said, are designed to help the students make good use of the knowledge they have acquired.
Web design and web development are fields that are highly dynamic and technical and to become an established professional in this field, you will need to have an education that is of current standards, project-oriented and practical, and you will get all this and more at DWTA. Visit their website by clicking on this link to learn more about them and how they can help you get started on your way to success.
Web Design and Web Development are on the rise and will continue to be, as long as the internet exists. Entire businesses worth billions of dollars have been built online (I’m trying not to mention Amazon) among other mouth gapping facts. So if you have been sitting on the fence of venturing into one of these fields, it’s high time you jump in.
