By: Moe Tamani
Some web designers personally create print backgrounds for the web pages that they design. These web designers probably worked in the print design industry before making the transition to the web design company that they work for now. That or they are used to the degree of control print media offers web page designers. Print, unlike the Web, offers both stability and permanence. Neither are characteristics commonly attributed to the Web. It is, however, all too easy to forget that fact.As you go through the process of creating your web page and adjusting it to match your design parameters, your web design company will undoubtedly require that you test your page in various browsers to ensure compatibility. It is almost inevitable that your web page will look slightly different when viewed from different browsers. This should serve to remind web designers of the impermanence and lack of stability of web media.Your web design company will probably require that you interact with your clients throughout the design process. You should take steps to ensure that the clients understand that the portfolios and design plans that you provide them with may not accurately represent the final look of the website. Often, web design companies receive complaints from customers who feel that the web pages created for them differ too much from the print-outs that they were shown by the web designers. In order to save yourself a significant amount of trouble, you must learn the best way to work with clients and educate them about the difficulties and realities of web design. Only if they understand the difficulties of making web design conform to print media will clients be inclined to give you some leeway in the final design of their project.Although it is definitely a good practice to maintain a printed portfolio for the benefit of clients, your responsibility as a web designer is to inform them that the printed material is not entirely accurate in representing your web design skills. After they have viewed your portfolio, you must ensure that they understand that the final web page design may look very different when viewed on a computer than when viewed on paper. Make sure that your clients understand the repercussions of any requests that they may have, such as slower load times if graphics are included. Most importantly, find out which platform your client prefers to use. The differences between pages viewed on Internet Explorer and the same pages viewed on Netscape can be very large. Avoid completing your project on one platform only to find that it looks entirely different on the platform that your customers are using.The differences between print media and web design can be difficult to overcome. However, there are some general rules and methods that you can utilize in order to help you overcome these problems.• Have a good understanding of your audience. It is essential for you to know who the people visiting your site will be and also your client’s target audience. If you understand their characteristics and probably behavior, you can better tailor your web pages to suit your audience. Highly proficient users will most likely browse your website using UNIX or Linux on large screen monitor while more typical users will likely use Internet Explorer on a smaller monitor. The differences are important to ensure that your clients do not have any complaints about your work.• Testing is enormously important. You must test your design on every available web browser and operating system that is available to you. For those that you are really unable to obtain, then the use of emulators provides an acceptable last resort. However, you should only resort to using emulators if you really have no choice. No matter how good the emulator that you use is, nothing can compare with being to properly test your web design on a real system.• Resolution is another aspect that you must consider. Resolution can have a large impact on the final viewing experience your website provides. If your clients and their target audience view your website using a browser setting that is smaller than you have designed the site for, then it is likely that your clients will demand that you rework the website to their satisfaction.As you work through the process of incorporating your page design into your project, bear in mind that although using CSS can help you obtain more precise layouts, web media is not, and never will be, as precise as print media. Understanding this simple fact may save you and your web design company a lot of trouble.
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