Sunday, October 5, 2014

Journal 1: Chapters 1-3 Response

Robbins, J. (2012). Learning web design: A beginner's guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and web graphics (4th ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.

Summary: The premise of the first three chapters is to get people new to web design a quick overview of some important vocabulary and concepts.  Chapter one delves into the components of web design and the different jobs and their duties.  This gave me more insight into all that goes on in creating websites and how it could be a one-person job or 30 people's jobs.   I enjoyed the concept of the web design layered cake, appealing to the girl's mind.  Web design has many layers to it, first with HTML creating the structure, then CCS focusing on presentation and lastly JavaScript that creates the behavior of the site.  Chapter two describes how the web works and how to not get it confused with the Internet.  All of these different components to the web makes me thankful for the domain name systems, which make it easier for the every day user to find what they need.  Just looking at a simple URL, there is the protocol, the site name that has the host name and domain name, and the absolute path has the directory path and the document.  This leads us to Chapter three that discusses some big concepts starting with multiple devices.  This concept talks about making the site with bare bones, so that it can be formatted for different devices, since mobile and tablet use are so predominant now.  Lastly, I was surprised to read that there is the Web Accessibility Initiative that requires websites to be usable for all kinds of people. 

Q1: What is the difference between the intranet and the extranet in how they are formatted? 
         The intranet has firewalls up that only grants access to people inside the company so important information cannot be leaked.  The extranet is the same but allows select users outside the firewall to have access.  The extranet limits what people can see with the use of passwords. 

Q2:  What kind of computer would be better for a web designer?

         Windows has been around for longer than the Mac and therefore is more compatible with multiple softwares and browsers.  For example, Flash does not work on Mac products and is used in many websites.  However, many in the graphic design professionals use Macs, especially for the large monitors you can get.  It is important to test your designs on the opposite machine to check for compatibility. However, it says to use Windows on the Mac, so now you are using the PC operating system. 

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