A brand website is arguably one of the foremost marketing tools that an organisation uses to present itself to the outside world. So be it the sites graphic design, codes, user interface and experience design, the search engine optimization tools employed, the compatibility with modern browsers or the responsiveness of the website on multiple devices, one simply cannot ignore the importance of a good (exceptional) website.
That said the world of web design is fast moving, constantly evolving, always dynamic. Tools that were the toast of the town yesterday are either upgraded or have made their way out. Newer versions and even more new tools are the order of the day. This is why it is a good idea to employ a digital agency that is in the ‘know’ at all times.
As it may be, let’s take a look at some of the ruling tools rocking the web design world of today.
1. GitHub
One of the most useful (and the most used) site for developers, GitHub is a collaborative website that helps build software. A shared resource where like-minded developers and individuals come together to pool their code in order to create faster and better interfaces and softwares.
It creates a platform where more than 11 million people come together to either find, share or use the resources from over 27 million projects. Github promises a fantastic way of combining know-how from worldwide developers who find that they can even store their projects whilst associating with fellow developers besides having the benefits of having their codes reviewed and managed for public or private projects.
Cascading style sheets is one of the most widely used tools by web designers and developers alike. In simple terms, CSS is a sort of code or a language that defines the presentation of the websites pages with clearly defined colors, layout and fonts. CSS allows developers to modify the site according to the different types of devices.
As of now, CSS3 is the latest standard for CSS; this however does not mean that it is not compatible with the earlier versions of CSS. CSS3 comes backward-compatible for the earlier versions of CSS.
Furthermore, CSS3 Click Chart is considered as a ‘go to’ reference site for developers as it speeds up the development process with its handy code examples, besides also displaying the CSS syntax that shows a user to ‘use’ a particular attribute along with a helpful demonstration. All the polyfills, tutorials, descriptions, links and tools along with information about browser support pertaining to the CSS3 features are mentioned therein. That’s not all; it allows the user to see a demonstration of the CSS3 feature by providing a heading that can be clicked on ultimately displaying all information about the said feature.
Any commercial/ personal website understands how important it is for the site to efficiently turn up in Google’s search results page. Moreover, it’s important to know how your site is going to look in the search results page once it has gone live. This tool allows you to do just that.
Rich snippets are small descriptions of the site that Google displays along with other relevant information such as reviews and ratings. So, it’s important that there is a good amount of relevant data on your site that can be picked up by Google. Developers typically are expected to add in mark-up formats such as micro formats or create additional tags on the existing web pages.
The Rich Snippet tool from Google allows for previews and customisations to the site so that you can effectively make any relevant changes as needed. This is particularly helpful as it checks the efficiency of the website data while also making sure that you fine tune your chances of an improved site listing.
4. Dirty Mark-up
Helping coders give cleaner codes, here comes along a site that’s simple and easy to use. The site helps developers/ coders to make a clean mark-up on html, css and javascript files with a simple click of the “clean” button.
As most coders would understand, writing code can get a bit messy at times with many additions and changes that are made along the way. The final result being that there’s a whole lot of mess strewn about with little or no time to ‘clean’ the mark-up codes. DirtyMarkup allows you to paste your own code and get a finished, cleaned code.
DirtyMarkup brings together CSS Tidy, Ace editor, HTML Tidy and JS Beautify as effective cleaners on the job. It is a well-designed interface, easily configured and quite simple to use; besides it also supports HTML5 now.
