Web Coding, Applications, Widgets and Databases ... Oh my!
For this section we have tried to keep jargon to a minimum, but as an overview of a technical service it needs to have a little. If you don't understand a few points or would like to know more about this service call 0845 388 3601.
Web development is broken down into two areas: front-end development and back-end development. Front-end developing tends to be done by a mix of designers and a back-end developers. They are responsible for turning design ideas into a functioning web site, user interface and JavaScript widgets. The back-end developers generally have no artistic ability and tend not to see too much daylight - so can be identified by their sun-shyness if they venture outside and their pale skin-tones. Back-end developers are responsible for programming into existence all the functions of your web site that it's users will experience but never see - XML parsers, elaborate product databases, eCommerce integrations etc.
Front-end Development
The first stage of front-end development is to turn your design or set of designs into standard web formats, HTML and CSS. Most web developers will simply use a WYSIWYG (pronounced 'wizzywig') editor like Dreamweaver to put your site into HTML. This is hardly more difficult than using Microsoft Word and results in an unprofessional end product. Web sites that have been constructed in a WYSIWYG editor will suffer from all of the following:
- Pages will not be designed for search engine optimisation
- Bulky & messy code, which is difficult to update and maintain
- Updating the site will negatively impact already low quality HTML
- Contain many coding errors, which will cause cross-browser incompatibility and confuse search engines, reducing your target audience
- The HTML will be inflexible and suffer from accessibility issues, again reducing your target audience
- Only makes use of a fraction of the potential power of HTML and CSS
At Great White every single page is hand-coded using scaleable, semantic, keyword-rich HTML. This means:
- All code is clean & minimal, resulting in pages that are easy to manage and update
- All your HTML is constructed in a way to best inform search engines what that page is about
- All your HTML is scaleable, meaning any content can be changed to fit any requirements and the size of the site can be increased without degradation (for accessibility purposes)
- All your HTML and CSS will be provided free of errors and compatible with major web browsers
- Your web site will be compatible with all screen resolutions
To help show how rife bad coding is, 1% would be a liberal estimate of the number of sites on the internet that have a solid HTML foundation. HTML should be the easiest part of making a web site. If so many development companies can't get that right what else are they going to do sub-standard?
Once your site has been meticulously coded into HTML, the next stage is to add features and facilities to the user interface.
Back-end Development
Once a project has been through front-end development it is passed onto our back-end developers. This is the stage where the 'behind the scenes' work goes on - your front-end site is connected to programming functions and databases that make your web site truly come alive.
Our approach to programming is object-orientated and modular. All of our programming is created with flexability and future development in mind (extensibility). The majority of our programming is built on custom designed frameworks, allowing us to do more in less time to a higher standard. We have our own content management frameworks, which allow us to build any type of content management system on strong and reliable foundations.
You will never find us creating anything that uses pre-built systems or packages; quite simply, they are inflexible, difficult to maintain and we would not insult our client's intelligence by giving them something we have just downloaded for free (not pointing any fingers). You'd be surprised how many 'development companies' charge a kings ransom for a lightly modified pre-made package and a £20 template.
