Web Designing – Creating An Interface For Great Lakes Peace Network Foundation

Background of the Study

1.1 Introduction

Web Design is a process of conceptualization, planning, modelling, and execution of electronic media content delivery via internet in the form of technologies (such as mark languages) suitable for interpretation and display by a web browser or other web-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

The intent of web design is to create a website (a collection of electronic files residing on one or more web servers) that presents content (including interactive features or interfaces) to the end user in the form of web pages once requested. Such elements as text, forms, and bit-mapped images (GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs) can be placed on the page using HTML, XHTML, or XML tags. Displaying more complex media (vector graphics, animations, videos, sounds) usually requires plug-ins such as Flash, QuickTime, Java run-time environment, etc. Plug-ins are also embedded into the web pages by using HTML or XHTML tags.

Improvements in the various browsers compliance with W3C standards prompted a widespread acceptance of XHTML and XML in conjunction with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to position and manipulate web page elements. The latest standards and proposals aim to leading to the various browsers’ ability to deliver a wide variety of media and accessibility options to the client possibly without employing plug-ins.

Typically web pages are classified as Static or dynamic.

Static pages don’t change content and layout with every request unless a human (web master or programmer) manually updates the page.

Dynamic pages adapt their content and/or appearance depending on the end-users input or interaction or changes in the computing environment (user, time database modifications, etc.) content can be changed on the client side (end-users computer ) by using client-side scripting languages (JavaScript, Jscript, Action script, media players and PDF reader plug-ins, etc.) to alter DOM elements ( DHTML). Dynamic content is often compiled on the server utilizing server-side scripting languages (PHP, ASP, PERL, ColdFusion, JSP, Python, etc.). Both approaches are usually in complex applications. With growing specialization within communication design and information technology field, there is a strong tendency to draw a clear line between web design specifically for web pages and web development for the overall logistics.

1.2 Background of the Study

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of peace through non-violence concept, and Pr.Johan Galtung the principal founder of the discipline of Peace and conflict studies, through his concept of conflict transformation by peaceful means, Great Lakes Peace Network Foundation is a non-profit network of a volunteer’s team involved in peace building, sustainable development and any other field related to the respect of human dignity.

GLPN was created in 1994 by Dr. Claude Shema-Rutagengwa, under GLPI label-Great Lakes Peace Initiative- but later changed status and name, then switched to the new status and actual name which is:

“GLPN-The great Lakes Peace Network Foundation”, with a priceless joint work of Anke Weisheit (The creation of GLPN is mainly based on the situation in the so called” The great Lakes region of Africa-GLRA” due to the intractability of the cruel conflict in that area.

Therefore, the former Germany-Belgium colony is regarded as a field of interest motivated political conflict between powerful countries since decades ago. This context motivated GLPN to work locally for peace and sustainable development in this region, but at the same time to have remarkable direct transformative impacts on external actors who are fueling the conflict in this region and vice-versa.

GLPN believes that the experience gained from the great lakes region of Africa, as intractable conflict with multiple actors from different backgrounds or cultures, and different nations, can be a milestone towards remedying similar indocile conflict all over the world, and contribute to peacebuilding and conflict transformation in any other part of the world, through sharing experiences and using the effective methods succeeded in this region.

Vision and Mission of GLPN: Great Lakes Peace Network Foundation is an independent peace and development network, non-profit organization aiming at peace by peaceful means. It inspires a passion for peace and sustainable development and other related fields focusing on a better and peaceful future for humankind.

GLPN Foundation is a well-organized team of experts from different countries equipped with a variety of skills and experienced in peace, human rights, environment, gender and youth issues, etc… It promotes conflict-mitigation and reconciliation in general and in specific conflict affected areas through meticulous on-the-ground research, active listening, education and advocacy.

Major activities: Research, Training/Education, Expertise, Lobbying & advocacy, Active facilitation.
Fields: Peace building, Mediation/Reconciliation, Environment, Sustainable development, Gender & youth issues.

1.3 Statements of the Problem

There are millions of computer users browsing the internet every day and each one is looking at a different size monitor suing a different resolution. How each person sees the graphics on your website varies depending on their screen and there are no uniform standards for making your site friendly to everyone.

Screen resolution refers to how many pixels your computer monitor will display, both vertically and horizontally. If you ever visited a website that did not fit your screen, making you scroll to the right to see the rest of the page, it was not entirely the designer’s fault. The website was just not created with your screen resolution.

Not too long ago, the most common computer monitor featured a resolution of 480 X 640. A number of people still surf the internet using this screen resolution, while today’s popular monitor use a 1024 X 768 screen resolution and most website are optimized to be viewed on these higher resolution screens. Those still using lower resolution displays will see website quite differently than those the site designed for.

Today’s monitor offer computer users a choice of several screen resolutions, with the lowest resolution being 400 X 600. With some any choices, it is often confusing for users to decide on the best settings, especially if they are not aware of the differences.

Visitors to your site that are using monitors with low screen resolution will usually not see your entire page on their screen. They will have to scroll horizontally to see the right side of your page. Those using a higher screen resolution than what your site is designed for may see a small, thin strip that can be rather frustrating.

Also among one of the problems encountered is the incapability of the browser window and viewing systems.
For example some viewing systems will have limited options of fonts. This means that any special font will have to be placed inside an image so that they are accessible to all users.

Another important constraint is the type of browser users view the page through. Different browsers interpret the display images and the HTML in a slightly different manner, which can lead to the picture being displayed incorrectly.

The main limitation is bandwidth, which mean how quickly information travels between the computer where your web site is located (your Web server), and the visitor’s computer. Even though 56.6kbps modems, and even 10Mbps cable modems are becoming more common, many people on the internet are still using 28.8kbps modems.

This means that the larger your Web pages are, the longer they take to download, and the less likely a visitor is to stick around to see them. One of the major tasks of a web site designer is to provide maximum content at a minimum file size. Graphics and animations are the big data-hogs. A screen sized photo in full colour can easily consume 2 megabytes of space, which would take a computer with a 28.8kbps modem about a half-hour to download.

1.4 Purpose of Study

With the revolution of World Wide Web (WWW), information could be accessed from one part of the globe to another. Organizations, schools, individuals, businesses are putting up their own websites. Having highlighted efficiency of the World Wide Web above, the researcher intends Putting Great Lakes Peace Network on the yellow pages i.e. easily accessible all over the globe in just a few seconds.

1.5 Significance of the Study

In this age of electronic commerce, career as a web designer can be a lucrative one. Demand of websites designers are at a constant rise as most of the businesses are attempting to initiate web presence. There are different website design companies that recruit talented and best of the breed web designers to facilitate their clients with appealing web portals with beautiful graphics and animated features. On the other hand, finding a cheap web designer is not at all a difficult task now, from the local community newspaper to yellow pages, several web design companies offer alluring options.

A good website designer needs to increase his skills and abilities to identify what the visitors want at a rapid pace. There are several vocational training programs for the web designers and these courses are generally tailored to provide a clear insight on the latest tools and technologies that are used in the market. There are innumerable web designing companies that offer cheap web design and it is also necessary for the web designers nowadays to keep the designing cost lower. So, it is really a tricky job to balance the quality and hours of work to create the end product, i. e the website at a competitive rate.

There remains different web development companies that can really help schools/institutions with effective solutions related to web presence. Self-study to identify proper web Development Company is essential. We must remember that any wrong selection of web Design Company can just be waste of money. Now more than a few web design companies are offering free domain name and e-mail id’s. Having e-mail with proper domain name is lucrative. We presence is now one of the most essential things that determine future of any business. Popularity of electronic commerce will be more and more with days and demand of website designers will be more.

1.6 Objective of the Study

Having an organizational website enhances the following:

Effective communication for members, scholars, activists, and intending members.

Easy access to the administrative in case their office location is not present in a particular country, area, or community.

Provision of educational resources in form of online/electronic articles where people can access them and information passed to appropriate quarters.

Effective dissemination of news and upcoming events of the organization.

Improved teaching and learning style.

To develop an understanding of technological processes among new internet users intending to understand it.

1.7 Scope of the Study

This study is limited to Green Lakes Peace Network online and does not provide an in-depth study to its activities overall, at the same time transforming them into a global organization accessible to billions of internet users all over the world.

1.8 Limitations of the Study

This research work was faced with a lot of difficulties. Time constraint was one of the limiting factors in carrying out this study.

Financial constraint also constituted in carrying out an in depth study of this project. Limitations to the extent in which data could be collected also constituted a problem.

Irregularities in power supply also dealt harshly with the researcher.

In spite of the above mentioned difficulties, some data was collected which will be analysed later.

1.9 Assumption of the Study

While researching on this work, i came up with a couple of assumptions which include:

I would be able to finish this work before deadline

In the long run, this research work would be accessed globally.

1.10 Definition of Terms / Variable

DHTML

Dynamic Hypertext Mark-up Language. it is a combination of HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript and Macromedia Flash Mx used to create animated and interactive websites.

HTML

Hypertext Mark-up Language is a client-side scripting language for Website design.

PHP (Archaic: Personal Home Page) Hypertext Preprocessor

These languages work closely with the Web server to interpret the requests made from the World Wide Web, process these requests, interact with other programs on the server to fulfil the requests, and then indicate to the Web server exactly what to serve to the client’s browser.

SQL Structured Query Language

Basically used in querying the databases to retrieve, updates, and review database

CSS – Cascading Style Sheet

A client-side scripting language, used in styling the webpages for a greater user-experience.

ASP – Active Server Pages

A server-side scripting language like the PHP. These languages work closely with the Web server to interpret the requests made from the World Wide Web, process these requests, interact with other programs on the server to fulfil the requests, and then indicate to the Web server exactly what to serve to the client’s browser.

Server

A specific application, called a Web server, will be responsible for communicating with the browser.

Photoshop

Graphics applications

Website

A website is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject

Apache

A server technology, designed to assist the webmaster in utilizing database and Server technology.

Unix

An operating system