Yair Gritzman Week 9 - Web Design and Development
Yair Gritzman Week 9 - Web Design and Development
Over the past year, I have become increasingly interested in programming websites from scratch. I have one website on the Internet currently, but I would like to develop a few more. I find the development process exciting because I can think of an idea, develop it on my computer, and share it with the rest of the world through the web. Having a website used by people around the world is fascinating because it shows how interconnected society is today.
About two weeks ago, I was connected to a non-profit organization that was looking for help developing a website. Since I find it difficult to think of website ideas on my own, I accepted the offer. While I haven’t started developing the website yet, I hope to spend some time working on it during the beginning of second semester (after college applications!).
Another aspect of web development that I love is the creativity involved with the design. Finding the perfect color scheme and layout of a website can have a substantial impact on the way users perceive a business, company, or non-profit organization. I would consider my art skills to be sub-par, so I hope that working on web design will improve my artistic ability. I find that I am already improving my design skills.
After hearing about this non-profit’s need for help on their website, I thought of an idea for a non-profit organization: create a network of high school students around the country who have prior web development experience or want to learn web development, and then connect them to nonprofits in need of a website. I think this could even be done through a Facebook group. I believe that an organization/network like this could benefit both students and society, because high school students get hands-on experience in programming websites, and non-profits get someone to build their website for free. Usually, hiring a web developer can be costly (often in the thousands), and building a website with Wix or a website builder generally costs money and offers less flexibility. In contrast, developing a website with code can be free or very cheap. I’m not sure about whether or not this network idea would work, but I would honestly consider giving it a shot during the second semester.
Have you ever built a website? Are you interested in learning how to code? Do you think a nonprofit that offers free web development services would work? Or do you see any potential flaws?
Hey Yair! This is awesome! I haven never learned how to code and have never done anything remotely related to computer science, but this sounds awesome! I personally am more interested in the design aspect of the process of making a website because you are right, the layout, color palette, and certain shapes all affect the way users perceive a website. There are multiple studies that show that very slight changes can completely change user interaction- for example using rounded edges instead of sharp edges gives a more friendly feel and makes users more likely to click on it. Anyway, this is definitely the future of many jobs, so it's great that you are already so into it! I definitely see myself on the more creative side of the digital world, but I should definitely explore it more.
ReplyDeleteHi Yair! Personally the only website I've "built" was a google sites in 7th grade where I had a DKJA gossip page. It didn't succeed. We used to learn some simple coding stuff and play coding games in computers in lower school, but I haven't done much since then. I think what you're doing is so cool and I love the idea of a nonprofit that offers these services. The only flaw I could see is that many adults will do this as a job, and I fear few teenagers may want to participate without compensation. But there's always a chance people will be selfless and do tezdaka. Very cool idea!
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