Web design

Four things learned in the session today December 17, 2013:

  1. Responsive design responds to variability in screen size. The designer can encode multiple sets of instructions based on different screen sizes. These instructions determine how the design will configure itself for each screen size.

  2. Overlapping elements are a common feature in graphic and typographical design in a print environment. True overlap is not well suited for Web design because Web design is based on entities with distinct boundaries. Web designs that achieve the appearance of overlap are unstable–that is, the composition will change in unpredictable ways on different browsers or with different screen sizes.

  3. Different Web browsers have different protocols for interpreting page encoding. Thus the same page can look different on different browsers and functionality may vary as well.

  4. Three key elements of design are: layout, typography, and color.

John L. Tofanelli

Author: John L. Tofanelli

John is Columbia’s Librarian for British and American History and Literature. His research interests include literature and religion in 18th- and 19th- century Great Britain, textual criticism, and book history. He has enjoyed the chance to explore the early architectural history of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine.