Web Development Study Guide

Web Development, HTML, and CSS Study Guide

• Web Design Basics: Complex multi-column layouts require careful consideration of responsiveness, browser compatibility, and content alignment. Modern layouts often utilize CSS Grid and Flexbox, combined with responsive units (e.g., percentages, viewport units)
• CSS Gap Property: Adds spacing between grid or flexbox items, differentiating from margin, which is external spacing independent of the layout context.
• Container Trick: Using a wrapper or container element helps constrain width and manage content alignment, simplifying responsive design by centralizing layout control.
• CSS Specificity: A method for determining which CSS rule applies when multiple rules match the same element, avoiding conflicts and ensuring predictable styles. Inline styles take precedence over IDs, classes, and elements.

Readability and Typography

• Paragraph Design: Avoid centering paragraphs to maintain readability. Use justified text cautiously, balancing aesthetics with appropriate hyphenation.
• Line Length and Spacing: Optimal line length is 45-75 characters. Use line-height (CSS) to ensure readability (1.4-1.6 is a good range).
• Contrast: High contrast between text and background improves readability and accessibility, reducing eye strain.
• Typography: Typeface refers to the design of characters, while font describes the weight and style of a typeface. Emphasis is placed on legibility and readability of text.
• Font Pairing: Pairing contrasting but complimentary typefaces improves design aesthetics, limiting typefaces to two or three is recommended

Layout and Design Principles

• Gestalt Principles (C.R.A.P.): Principles for effective layout:
  • Contrast: Helps draw attention to elements.
  • Repetition: Reinforces design consistency.
  • Alignment: Maintains visual consistency and relationships.
  • Proximity: Groups related elements for clarity.

Responsive Design

• Meta Viewport Tag: Crucial for ensuring proper scaling of web pages on mobile devices. The width=device-width property matches the screen width of the device, while initial-scale=1 sets the initial zoom level.
• Mobile Web Evolution: Trends toward mobile-first design and responsive layouts increase mobile usage and the importance of touch-friendly interfaces.
• Media Queries: Allow applying different styles based on device characteristics. For example, adjusting styles based on screen size.

Navigation and Usability

• Website Navigation: Navigation requires consistent visuals and usability. Mobile designs often utilize hamburger menus over dropdown menus.
• Best Practices for Menus:
  • Simpler and clear menus improve intuitive navigation.

JavaScript Basics

• Execution Context: JavaScript can be client-side (runs in browser, interacts with DOM) or server-side (using Node.js for backend logic).
• Comparison to PHP: JavaScript is often asynchronous (capable of running in the browser or server) while PHP is usually synchronous and server-side only.
• Positioning JavaScript: Place <script> tags near the end of the HTML document to avoid blocking page rendering.

Libraries and Plugins

• CDNs (Content Delivery Networks): Benefits include faster loading through distributed servers, saving bandwidth and reducing server load.
• Minification: Reduces code size by removing unnecessary characters (spaces, comments), which speeds up loading and improves performance.

Libraries vs. Plugins

• Libraries: Provide pre-written code for general tasks.
• Plugins: Extend functionality of libraries. Load them after the library they depend on.

Historical and Contextual Knowledge

• JavaScript and jQuery: jQuery is a JavaScript library that simplifies DOM manipulation to improve cross-browser compatibility. A significant part of its development was related to RIT.
• Java vs. JavaScript: Java is primarily a server-side, object-oriented language, while JavaScript is primarily a client-side, dynamic language, with some server-side capabilities.

This quiz covers essential web development concepts including HTML and CSS design principles. Learn about responsive layouts, CSS specificity, and effective typography strategies to enhance readability. Test your understanding of modern web design techniques such as CSS Grid and Flexbox.