Voiceover: Welcome to the first lecture about web design.
I hope you already downloaded your copy of the course ebook.
If you didn't, you should do that right now.
It is in the previous lecture.
So besides all the things you will learn in the course,
I also share a lot of resources with you in the course ebook
as we go over the different topics of this course.
This will make your life as a web designer a lot easier.
This ebook actually contains material that is not covered in
this course, but in my other course,
which is about web design and web development.
So take a look at that material as well.
Now before we start, let's first distinguish
between web designer and web developer.
The designer is the one who creates
the look and feel of the web site.
The developer then actually builds a web site based
on the design from the designer.
A front-end developer uses languages
such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
for the front-end which is
the visible part of the web sites.
Now the lines between designers and developers
are becoming more blurred as learning to code
is getting easier for designers
and designing is getting easier to developers.
So if you're already familiar with HTML and CSS,
or Photoshop or some other graphical software,
you can take the guidelines and rules you will learn
in this course, and start using them today
to design beautiful web sites.
Now there's actually a good reason why it's getting easier
to get started with web design.
And I'm talking about flat design, which is
the big, new design trend popularized
by Microsoft and Apple.
The introduction of flat design completely changed
the way we design today.
I will explain this based here on Apple's iOS
that we can see here in this picture.
So on the left side, you have the old iOS6,
with all those shadows,
color gradients, textures, and bubbles.
On the right side, the new iOS7 look and feel.
Now flat design gets rid of all
those shadows, color gradients, textures,
and so on, leaving us with a two-dimensional design
without losing their functionality.
Most people perceive flat design
as being simple, clean, and modern.
I personally think that interface on
the right side looks really much cleaner
and more elegant as well.
Or maybe look at these two login forms.
I mean, would you find it easier
to design the left or the right interface?
And that's what I'm talking about.
So this is a huge opportunity
for new designers just like you.
Or look at these beautiful flat web designs.
Now I'm not saying that it's easy
to design these sites because it really is not.
But for a complete beginner, I think it's easier
to get started with this type of design
because it's technically easier to do.
You will see lots of web sites
like these over the next lectures.
So that's it about the introduction to web design.
I think it's very important that you start to get a feeling
for what's happening in the world of web design right now.
So that's why I gave you this short introduction.
And now we will start learning
some guidelines about typography.
Make sure you don't miss them.