The transition from static to dynamic web design

Scaife-Elliott, L

The transition from static to dynamic web design

Scaife-Elliott, L

Permalink

Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2013

Open Access

Copyright Clearance Process

Recently Added
In Progress
Open Access

This item is open access.

Adobe PDF

Download contents and abstractAdobe PDF (209.52 kB)

Adobe PDF

Download thesisAdobe PDF (4.3 MB)

View statistics

Full metadata record

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Scaife-Elliott, L
dc.date.accessioned	2013-04-09T03:53:06Z
dc.date.available	2013-04-09T03:53:06Z
dc.date.issued	2013
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/21809
dc.description	University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.	en_US
dc.description.abstract	Recent developments in open source software are enabling web designers to configure dynamic web sites quickly, easily and cheaply. The promise of open source CMS software, ultimately is a web environment in which users are programmers. On the surface it would appear that web site creation is moving in the direction of no longer needing expensive custom solutions by professional web developers. These new software systems use a variety of approaches from mere configuration of the system to script implementation. They may require limited programming experience beyond the web designer’s CSS and XHTML capabilities. Based on the Open Source platform, PHP and MySQL offer an easily learned and supported framework to web designers. Web designers now have a tremendous opportunity to harness open source content management systems and extend what they are offering to clients and their employers. Increasingly, it will become the duty of web instructors and of tertiary institutions to equip students with these capabilities, so that they can function effectively in the new environment. This research uses surveys, interviews, and a research workshop with longitudinal results to explore the questions posed. The collation of materials is hosted on a dedicated web site. The findings of this research indicate that students would benefit from a practical approach to web development through the introduction of a CMS in their studies. These are skills employers consider valuable. The main conclusions and recommendations are firstly that many design students see themselves as performing an exclusively aesthetic role in the development of web projects, and secondly, that these students, with proper instruction in the usage of open source CMS’s, are more than capable of making and implementing decisions concerning the functionality or programming of web projects. As a result of this study it is my belief that design students with a deeper understanding of open source CMS’s will be able to occupy a role currently falling between the occupations of graphic design, web development and object-oriented programming. It is my hope that this project will inform and educate so that the wider design community, and in particular design educators, can make more informed decisions about the transition from static to dynamic web design.	en_US
dc.format	Thesis (MDesign)	en_US
dc.language.iso	en	en_US
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/21809/10/02whole.pdf
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/ppc
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	Web design.	en
dc.subject	Content management systems.	en
dc.subject	Open source software.	en
dc.title	The transition from static to dynamic web design	en_US
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access

Abstract:

Recent developments in open source software are enabling web designers to configure dynamic web sites quickly, easily and cheaply. The promise of open source CMS software, ultimately is a web environment in which users are programmers. On the surface it would appear that web site creation is moving in the direction of no longer needing expensive custom solutions by professional web developers. These new software systems use a variety of approaches from mere configuration of the system to script implementation. They may require limited programming experience beyond the web designer’s CSS and XHTML capabilities. Based on the Open Source platform, PHP and MySQL offer an easily learned and supported framework to web designers. Web designers now have a tremendous opportunity to harness open source content management systems and extend what they are offering to clients and their employers. Increasingly, it will become the duty of web instructors and of tertiary institutions to equip students with these capabilities, so that they can function effectively in the new environment. This research uses surveys, interviews, and a research workshop with longitudinal results to explore the questions posed. The collation of materials is hosted on a dedicated web site. The findings of this research indicate that students would benefit from a practical approach to web development through the introduction of a CMS in their studies. These are skills employers consider valuable. The main conclusions and recommendations are firstly that many design students see themselves as performing an exclusively aesthetic role in the development of web projects, and secondly, that these students, with proper instruction in the usage of open source CMS’s, are more than capable of making and implementing decisions concerning the functionality or programming of web projects. As a result of this study it is my belief that design students with a deeper understanding of open source CMS’s will be able to occupy a role currently falling between the occupations of graphic design, web development and object-oriented programming. It is my hope that this project will inform and educate so that the wider design community, and in particular design educators, can make more informed decisions about the transition from static to dynamic web design.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/21809