Every man, woman and child has their own website or blog these days. Most have flashy things that fly around and other annoying things that pop out when you least expect it. But dynamic websites, i.e. websites that change the content without you having to reload the page, can be incredibly immersive, usable and professional when used intelligently.
These days, there is a good chance if something on a webpage changes when you click on it that the affect has been created with a technology called JavaScript.
What is JavaScript?
JavaScript is a web coding language which allows web users to interact with elements on a website. No doubt you yourself have come across JavaScript today (in fact you are on a web page that uses it right now!). JavaScript used to be considered a product for the devil, it was hated by many web developers and designers. But as browsers have improved their performance and techies now understand the language much better, we’ve grown to love it and web users can’t go too far without it.
Can a web designer do this for me?
It really depends on the technical ability and knowledge of the individual web designer. In my experience, many web designers enjoy getting stuck in and bringing their designs to life and JavaScript allows them to do that. However, there some web designers who like to stick to Photoshop and just Photoshop. Before you hire a designer you should ask them questions about their coding abilities: if they aren’t a confident ‘coder’ then you’ll be required to find someone who is in order to turn their designs in to fully fledged websites.
With great power comes great responsibility…
As I briefly touched on in the introduction, use JavaScript wisely. There are too many websites out there who have decided to use JavaScript in a poor manner which unfortunately has had a negative effect on the user experience.
