Before diving into a new pool, you always need to check the water level and temperature. You can foreseen such things about web development by knowing some introductory features of it. This article is an effort to give you an overview of web development so that you can judge yourself whether or not you are willing to do it.

Lets have a look at historical importance of web development first. When internet started for public use for the first time, it was more of a text based service than a graphical one. It was also not a proper platform to perform different actions and doing business on it, rather it was not more than an information source. Today, internet is a very big industry and if I am not wrong the biggest industry with trillions of dollars waiting for you to get your piece of cake. All this made web development a key role player in accelerating business on this medium. You don't visit a site again having poor navigation, low usability and even annoying background color. People have choice now as the whole world has become a global village which is accessible to everyone out there. Web development is important because of internet's worldwide accessibility as well as ability to earn via ecommerce. So now its clear that good web developers are required to run a successful online business, application or an interactive information resource for any organization. The next question that comes in our mind is how can we dive into web development. What is the best way to do it. The answer is simple. This quotation answers it all: "Start by doing the necessary, then the possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible"

- St. Francis

Lets talk about "the necessary" in web development. You need to have your mind very clear about your approach towards web development before identifying the necessary. For example your approach will be different if you just want to develop a mini site with no dynamic content or high quality graphics and you will think differently if you are willing to make dynamic, interactive and application based web sites. In any case, I recommend to start with HTML. HTML is the foundation of web development and I believe that you can build huts but no buildings without foundations. You need to have a strong base before you actually move towards advance web development. HTML provides you a good base with the help of which you get the freedom of coding to the extent of HTML's limitations which is a standard for web sites by W3C (Http://www.W3C.org). Learn HTML first and then move to other available web editors like Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. The ones who know DOS commands have good hold on their computers than the ones who just know how to use WINDOWS. That is a matter of fact, you need to know the backend to fully utilize the frontend. After learning HTML and having some grip of web editors, you can move to scripting languages. Doing Javascript after that is good choice. VBscript is also good but Javascript is easy to learn and easy to run anywhere. These mini scripting languages give you an experience of dynamic content and interacting with site visitor. Now you can move your web site to its real place i.e. internet. You can learn online management of a web site after this and upload your site and test it there.

Advance web development comes into play after you've gone through with all this stuff. You are already impressing your friends with your web site till now, but you want to explore the maximum possibilities that can happen with a web site. From small form integration to database driven sites, you can make your ideas a real shape after learning just a little about advance scripting languages like ASP, PHP, JSP or CGI. You can choose a language and start learning it. If you are good in programming or even not that good, you will be amazing yourself in few days by endless components these languages offer you. Imagine! setting up your own email service for your friends or organization, running an online records management system, playing with an online message board and even writing your own chat application. Possibilities are limitless once you enter in this world of web development. You can then start improving your visibility by learning graphics. You can get some knowledge of graphic softwares and can play with them to produce the best out of yourself. Graphics play a vital role in effective presentation of any web site. Usability matters a lot but graphics are also very necessary to give a good first impression. At the end, choose some specific dimensions of web development and sharpen the saw. Start improving your skills and soon you'll see yourself as a very professional web developer.

Keywords: web development, web designing, web design, web, internet, learning, html

About the Author

Mudassar Saeed Khan, Islamabad, Federal, Pakistan

mudassar_82@yahoo.com
http://www.mudassar.4t.com

Mudassar Saeed Khan is doing his Computer Engineering from Bahria University. He is a web designer too and has developed a few web sites and working on a mega web portal named as WebTaza.com.

Thanks for reading.