The Future of Microsoft Silverlight

First released in 2007, Microsoft Silverlight offers an alternative to Adobe Flash as a means to run multimedia, animation, and graphics in a user’s web browser. The newest version, Silverlight 5, saw final release in December of 2011, but it remains unclear whether or not Microsoft will develop Silverlight 6. With the advent of HTML5 and the Flash’s continued relevance, some argue that we have already witnessed the twilight of Silverlight.

Those that believe HTML5 will “kill” Silverlight and Flash point to HTML5’s ability to run multimedia and graphical content on the web without relying on the web visitor’s access to the latest Silverlight or Flash plug-in. However, HTML5 runs only on the newest browsers such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 9, Safari, Firefox, and a few others. Visitors relying on older browsers with see only the frustration of an error message. Silverlight generally enjoys broader browser compatibility, but still requires the visitor to run the same version as the site. As HTML5 has yet to see release and will take some time for widespread implementation, Silverlight will almost certainly stay in use, though Microsoft may very well be “biding its time” before making any decisions regarding Silverlight 6.

Microsoft itself has declined comment on the subject, leaving pundits to read between the lines. Microsoft has stated it will continue to offer support for their platform for at least the next five years, but they have also announced that their cross-platform runtime solution will be HTML5 because it makes for easier porting across different devices. Other industry watchers observe Adobe’s recent announcement of abandoning further Flash development on mobile devices to focus instead on HTML5 and expect Microsoft to take a similar stance.

Some industry watchers also point to personnel changes in Microsoft as an indicator of the company’s ambivalence. Scott Guthrie, considered by most to be the “father” of Silverlight, left Microsoft’s Developer Division in May of 2011 to move to the Windows Azure team and took many of his personnel with him. Furthermore, the well-known and influential champion of Silverlight, John Papa, left Microsoft in September of the same year. While these changes hardly function as irrefutable proof of Silverlight 6’s demise, two critical leaders “jumping ship” off its development framework seems to suggest that Microsoft does not consider it a priority.

Silverlight 6 may never see the light of day, but as HTML5 will most likely not see full recommendation until 2016, Silverlight 5 will persist as an option for the immediate future. Eventually, as the number of users of non-HTML5 compatible browsers dwindles, developers will likely abandon the plug-in-dependent Silverlight and Flash options for the easier-to-use and superior HTML5.

Should HTML5 Be Used for Creation of Mobile Friendly Sites?

In February 2015, Cisco forecasted that “mobile data traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57 percent from 2014 to 2019, reaching 24.3 exabytes per month by 2019.” In April 2015, Google released a mobile-friendly update, and announced, “We’re boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results. Now searchers can more easily find high-quality and relevant results where text is readable without tapping or zooming, tap targets are spaced appropriately, and the page avoids unplayable content or horizontal scrolling.“

Thus, you can reap a number of benefits by developing a mobile-friendly website for your business. The mobile-friendly feature will make your website rank high on search engine result pages, and hence get regular website visitors. At the same time, the website will further keep the users engaged by delivering optimized mobile experience, and convert them into customers. However, you must use powerful and widely used web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to create a website that delivers optimized mobile experience, regardless of the user’s mobile device.

As the complete and final version of HTML standard, HTML5 comes with several new syntactic features, element attributes and APIs. The new features enable developers accomplish a variety of tasks without writing longer lines of code. At the same time, they can also take advantage of these features to boost the website’s performance and compatibility across a variety of devices. They can further use it to create mobile-friendly websites that offer more functionality than native mobile applications, while storing data on the client. There are also a number of reasons why web developers across the world use HTML5 for building mobile friendly websites.

Why Use HTML5 for Developing Mobile Friendly Websites?

Compatible with Major Devices and Browsers

At present, HTML5 is compatible with the latest versions of major web browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera. However, each browser does not support all HTML5 elements. Whenever a new element is introduced, it is not supported by all web browsers instantaneously. But the programmers can simply define the doctype to convey information about the elements to the web browser. It is also designed with features to create mobile websites that function smoothly across many devices and browsers.

Enhances Site Accessibility

While using HTML5 for web development, you can take advantage of ARIA and several semantic tags. New semantic tags like <header>, <footer>, < nav >, and < section > make it easier for the screen readers to access your website content. As the screen readers can read the document, the users can get optimized experience. Likewise, ARIA assigns specific role to various elements in a HTML page. It uses role attributes to identify and separate elements like header, footer, navigation and article. HTML5 further validates these elements to customize the content for each device.

Optimizes Website for Mobile Browsers

HTML5 allows developers to use several Meta tags to design websites for smaller touch screen devices. Based on their requirements, the programmers also have option to use specific Meta tags. For instance, they can use Viewport to describe the width and settings of a viewpoint. Likewise, full screen browsing option enables them to display the website in full screen mode on iOS devices. They can further use the home screen icons Meta tag to enable users to add their favorite apps to the home screen. These Meta tags make it easier for developers to customize the website for various mobile devices without writing additional code.

Supports Audio and Video Directly

HTML5 enables programmers to make the audio and video content accessible by using the < audio > and < video > tags. So they can make the audio and video play directly without using any third-party media player, and conventional HTML tags like < div > and < embed >. The new tags treat your media content just like images. However, you still have option to define various attributes of the video including source, height, width and auto play. These tags simplify the way websites deliver audio and video content to users using different devices.

Generates Better Forms

HTML5 further makes it easier for developers to create simple and intuitive forms for both web browsers and mobile browsers. While accessing the website on a mobile device, users often find it difficult to submit information through the form. But HTML5 makes it easier for users to fill in the forms on their mobile device. For instance, the keypad of the mobile device will automatically change according to the content to be submitted by the use. When a user is required to submit his email id, he will see a keypad with keys for @ and .com.

Allows Local Storage

HTML5 also features a local storage technique that is better and more secure than cookies. The local storage feature is designed just like a client side database. So it enables programmers to store the user information across multiple windows. Further, the user data will still persist even after the browser is closed or the user deletes all cookies. As they can store the data in user’s browser, it becomes easier for developers to accomplish tasks like storing the user information, caching data, and restoring the user’s previous application state. On the whole, the feature will keep the data secure and persistent, while making the website deliver better user experience.

Builds Better User Experience

To become more popular, your website must allow users to interact with the content instead of simply reading the information posted on it. Companies offering HTML5 development services enable you to boost user interaction using the < canvas > tag. The tag is designed in a manner similar to rich internet applications like Flash. It enables users to interact with the website content, and encourages them to visit your website regularly. At the same time, it further allows you to enhance user interaction using several native APIs. You can use these native APIs to manage browser history, edit document, store database offline, and time media playback.

Helps Programmers to Write Cleaner Code

Often programmers find it a daunting challenge to make changes to lengthy and unorganized HTML code. But HTML5 is designed with specific features to make the code cleaner and more organized. In addition to writing clear, descriptive and semantic code, you can further keep the meaning separate form style and content. At the same time, it further makes the code accessible and understandable for search engine bots. Thus, the cleaner code will also contribute towards increasing your website search engine visibility.

Along with using HTML5, you also need to focus on the website’s design, features and content to make it deliver optimized user experience. At the same time, it is also important to test the look, feel and performance of the website across many devices and mobile browsers to improve the overall site experience.

HTML5 Mobile Development and Compilers

HTML4 is the standard that has guided internet browser implementation since the beginning of the millennium. Combined with JavaScript and CSS 2, these three foundation pills have shaped website design over the last decade.

One key missing of the HTML4, CSS and JavaScript holy trinity, has been a lack of animation and multimedia integration. Although mootools, and jquery JavaScript libraries address the animation issues to an estimated, video has generally only been easily cross browser / cross platform achievable with Flash.

HTML5 is the standard to replace HTML4, even websites coded in HTML5 will only function on the latest versions of Safari, Opera or Firefox 4 and Internet explorer 9 only has partial implementation of the new standards. A bonus is that it will function in the world of mobile phones such as iPhone, Blackberry and Android based phones. Mobile websites designed and coded in HTML5, not only enjoy many of the new features but also work on different handsets.

In 2011 it is now the time to start thinking about replacing HTML4 with HTML5, which brings many extensions to the current standards including: –

  • in built video and media handling
  • a far more powerful set of style rules in CSS3
  • the canvas object to handle drawing, and display requirements

In addition to filling the hole currently patched by Adobe Flash technology, HTML5 introduces a whole new set of design and other features in it own right including: –

  • session storage
  • local data storage
  • SQL data storage

This combination of tools firmly establishes HTML5 as an application development platform, although even with the addition of this powerful client side toolset, a server side platform of some description (php, java or.net) will almost certainly be needed to create a complete application . Unfortunately at this point in time, there is a problem with desktop browsers as many users have old browsers and some do not agree with the latest standards. Drupal is recommended for websites designed for desktop browsers at this point in time.

Using HTML5 for Mobile Internet

Unlike desktop computers, new technology phones invariably meet standards and so HTML5 can be used in the growing world of the smartphone, examples are the iPhone (iOS), Blackberry and Android based phones. Perhaps even more importantly HTML5 is the one standard that binds these disparate technologies (eg the iOS and the Android OS) together. Thus mobile sites coded in HTML5, not only enjoy many of the new features, but also work on different handsets.

Cross Compiling HTML5 Applications and Phonegap.

Whilst this use of HTML5 for mobile websites is in itself exceptional, there is an even more significant advantage, with the use of compilers such as Titanium and Phonegap. Developers at adapt have created Drupal modules such as the phonegap project. Phonegap is an open source platform which allows JavaScript and HTML5 apps to be compiled into native apps; these can then be uploaded to app stores for Blackberry, Android and iPhone. It is now possible for users to upload their HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript assets to the Adobe® PhoneGap ™ Build cloud service; demand for Phonegap is increasing.

Conclusion

Whilst HTML5 (unlike Drupal) may not be taking the world of web design and desktop browsing by storm, it has completely revolutionized the world of mobile app development and phonegap. Not only does HTML5 provide a very cost effective way to develop 'cross platform', but it also dramatically reduces the cost of maintaining apps in the future. Phonegap developers now find themselves in a growing market.

Tips for Learning PSD to HTML5/CSS Conversion

Designing and developing a website involves a distinct set of activities. Both, however, are dependent on each other to deliver the finished product. Your design activities involve your aesthetic and creative genius to help you deliver a clean and beautiful website using Photoshop, the popular image editing tool from Adobe. However, your design in order to be developed into a website needs to be converted into an HTML file. Let us take a look into the basics of understanding how to convert a PSD into HTML 5 or CSS for developing a website.

Getting the Prerequisites in place

As a first pre-requisite to start on the conversion process is to have a PSD file in place. A PSD is the default file extension given to all files created in Photoshop. This will be the base for you to start off on the conversion.

In addition to this you will need a basic understanding of HTML5 in order to plan the layout. Get a grasp of basic HTML concepts like tags, attributes and syntax.

Setting up the Repository Structure

Before you begin, make sure you have the repository structure in place. Configure the structure of the location where the files and folders will be hosted. You need to create a main or the root folder which will hold all the sub folders. Create separate sub folders for every element of your design, namely, scripts, CSS, images, text and so on. In addition to this create an index.html which will hold your entire HTML mark-up. This is the main file which will be retrieved by browsers based on user requests.

Slice and Dice Image

It is quite obvious to even the uninitiated that the PSD file in its entirety cannot be included in the HTML file. Therefore, it has to be sliced into smaller sizes. You can choose between the two image formats, PNG-24 bit and JPEG, for saving the sliced images. However, while the PNG-24 bit is definitely the better option in terms of image quality, the JPEG is far superior so far as size optimization is concerned. Since lighter images are no doubt the first priority, you may want to compromise on quality in the best interest of your website.

Getting into the Code

Let us now understand how you can weave in the sliced images into your HTML 5 code. Position the logo prominently on the HTML 5 page. Include a header tag within your body tag. Within the header, add a div with a Wrapper as its class value. Include the image tag with the image path in its source attribute. Make the logo clickable by introducing the anchor tag and linking it to any section or page of your Website. Usually the Logo is linked to the home page so as to enable users with easy navigation. Your code once completed should look like this:

Use the Nav tag of HTML 5 to create the navigation bar. Make an ordered or unordered list as required and add

  • tags to include the menu options. Append a unique class name “active” to the firs
  • tag which can be used in the CSS. You would also need to add an anchor tag to link individual menu options to a specific destination on the webpage. Converting a PSD to HTML 5 becomes easy if you have the right tools to help you do it. Using tools like Dreamweaver helps to substantially reduce your manual effort and also deliver good results.

Designing With Free HTML5 Resources

If you haven’t heard about the free HTML5 resources, then here’s the perfect guide for you! As you know HTML5 talks are almost everywhere. You will find an endless number of blogs and articles concerned with the pros and cons, benefits and functions, and other aspects of the markup language and its resourceful designs. But reading all of them will make you realize that it’s only confusing you. So here we have presented some better known facts of the free resources based on HTML5 which you must read to make up your mind.

Diving Into Its Features

Apart from the design of a theme or website template, users consider its features. Responsive design, SEO-compatibility, browser rendering, mobile readiness, and stylish layouts are common to most of the website resources, even in the ones coded in HTML5 . But apart from these features, there are other user-specific features such as multimedia support, stylish hover effects, parallax background, navigation, smooth page scroll, and a lot others that will help you get your website up and running in a much less time than expected!

Flipping Through its Development Side

A lot of times users ask if the free HTML5 resources are really usable in designing a website and what is the guarantee of its success. And if these are some of your questions, then the answer is yes, they can very well be used in designing websites and do offer everything of the best quality. If you didn’t know, then let us tell you that even the free resources such as design templates and website themes developed in HTML5 are built using the latest technologies and modern design techniques that will be simply perfect for your site. So, the code of these free resources is not only error-free but clean, flexible and well-structured.

Sifting Through Its Uses

Using free HTML5 resources in designing websites is quite interesting. And you don’t have to think twice for using it in your websites. The flexible nature of these design bees gives you the power to customize it as per your tastes and in accordance with the objectives of your website. So whether you have a business motive or a private project, or a social well-being, or any other website project; you will be able to get a custom layout done without working for many hours! This is why, we say, anyone and everyone can style stunning styles in a while.

Also, whether you are an expert or a beginner or anyone else, designing with the free HTML5 resources won’t be of much trouble for you. All you have to do is manage the already beautified elements and set a format for the layout structure according to you. But if you are looking for the best of the free HTML5 resources, we would recommend you to use the products from Creativepig. Otherwise, you can waste your time on hunting down for resources having specific features or styles for your individual requirements. All the best for your web designing process! We will be back with some more exciting stuff for you soon.

Convert PSD to HTML5 and Get an Engaging and Responsive Website

Your business will need a feature-rich and user-friendly website to get the most out of the internet. The site has to be both engaging and interactive at the same time so that it catches the attention of more users. Also, users should never face any trouble in accessing any part of the site and they should be delivered with browsing ease. To achieve all these features, you need to leverage PSD conversions by hiring experts.

You also need to benefit from HTML5 to enhance the site’s capabilities and boost its overall performance. In doing so, your site delivers users the freedom of playing videos, animations and music even without using any add-ons. Such multimedia and entertainment-driven files can be played, including drawing, on the page itself. More so, any page can be enriched with either graphics, diagrams or animations to boost the level of engagement of the site.

More so, the conversion also gives websites the ability to support geo-location to help business with their marketing targets. With its SQL-based support, it allows storing of data on the systems and also lets apps to be accessed even when one is offline. The PSD conversion also helps websites to maintain a consistent look across all devices. To get all these features, you need to find an expert company where developers have done have many conversions.

High quality conversions are delivered when an experienced company is hired. Above all, such a company asks you any type of file, be it PSD, GIF, BMP, JPG or anything else, and easily converts it into HTML5. Clients are given the freedom of choosing from multiple versions of HTML5 and CSS and this helps in meeting of specifications and requirements in the exact way possible. Also, your site’s look-and-feel gets better when HTLM5 and CSS combine together.

It means, you site looks charming and functions properly when it’s enriched with the combined virtues of HTML5 and CSS. And when a site has both aesthetic and visual appeal at the same time, its prospects go up and it helps business reap more rewards on the digital world. In addition, the site’s visibility goes up, it becomes visible to more users and it never troubles users while they access.

So, if you want to get the most out of the digital world, you then have to get the most out of the PSD conversion. In a sense, you have to leverage HTML5 to the core to boost the site’s competencies and its prospects. As the internet is all about catching more attention and drawing more visits, you will need a website that gives a big fillip to your site’s engagement quotient.

In overall, the time has come when you should think to convert PSD to HTML5 to benefit from ever-growing opportunities on the internet. You need to first find an experienced conversion partner and then send it the file of choice. After then, just sit back and see them convert your files into fully optimized web pages to enhance your site’s productivity.

What’s New in HTML5 for SEO?

HTML 5 is XML based presentation language used on World Wide Web for structuring and presenting content. Visual and audio elements are easier to code in HTML 5 and less time is wasted writing JavaScript for animations. HTML 5 has many new concepts which will be beneficial more to Web Developers and Designers. Web designing done with the help HTML 5 will make them very independent and they will not have to do more coding overall as there is no need of scripting for validation.

HTML 5 has introduced new HTML tags and a new feature of page segmentation which now with HTML 5 Web Design allow applying page segmentation. These new HTML tags are used to segment a page from different elements which will affect SEO practices.

We will see how these new HTML tags affect SEO work:

Article tag can be used in article which makes HTML code clean and reduces use of tag which basically separates segments of the article. This leads to increase in rank in search engine with the use of on-page Search Engine Optimization.

Due to use of Section tag each section of the content of the article can be separated which gives the benefit of different HTML heading for each section.

A new Header tag is most useful for SEO practice as it gives lots of flexibility. It is very much similar to tag but it has lots of stuff like H 1, H 2, H 3 elements, whole paragraphs of text, hard-coded links, and other information. Footer tag is also useful to store some important information which can be useful for SEO.

Nav tag is the most important tag from the SEO point of view as it can be used to identify a collection of links which are on other pages.

These are only some of the new tags introduced in HTML 5 which will be advantageous for SEO practice in some way.

Implementing HTML5 Design for Online Business Website

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the basic element for the development of any kind of web pages. An HTML document contains elements surrounded with tags. The attributes are used to specify the start, break, paragraph, end and a lot more within a content file. From long time, web designers had been using the tags to develop attractive web-pages. But with the arrival of HTML5, the method of website designing has taken a great move. Today, most of the online companies look forward to have HTML5 website design. This major revision of the Hypertext Markup Language has found its important space in the web designing industry.

Take a snippet about the benefits associated with HTML5 website design and make decision to implement this revised version of HTML into your business web pages.

• Offers new elements which enable the search engine to index relevant content over the website.

• Lowers the number of HTTP requests within a file thereby increasing the download speed of the web page.

• Offers a host of tools to add advanced videos, animations and audio elements within the website.

• Provides user-friendly inputs which supports content files, emails etc.

• Enables video with language support so that a user can play variety of video formats.

• Offers canvas element for advanced animation and graphics.

• Provides local storage for saving users data inside the browser on the computer system.

• Streamlines the use of audio and video files without the use of third-party plug-in.

• Allows web designers to create player controls which can be easily programmed with the Java Script.

• Allows easy maintenance of codes without the need of traditional div tags.

A few web designing companies believe in conceptualization, structuring and implementation of the latest web technology for bug-free web developments. They have web professionals updated with the knowledge of markup language and its effective use for HTML5 website design. They are able to handle designing elements in a specific way thereby saving the time and budget associated with the web development process. If you want to seek professional help from some renowned website designing companies, then consider searching for them over the Internet. A few companies have made a remarkable name in the market and receiving web-based services from them might suit your business requirements.

Apart from searching online existence of web designing companies, you can contact some independent authorities who undergo research about the best web designing companies in the IT-industry. They have detailed information about web service providers and are able to guide their clients with respect to hiring web professionals. A few web designing companies are known to have a good number of active clients all over the world. Before seeking HTML web design services, it is advisable to check out the company’s portfolio as well as the projects undertaken by them. Also, consider looking for professionals with whom you can discuss your business ideas and specific requirements. You can also look for companies who have scored good grades in terms of client retention and have received wide recognition in the market.

First Thoughts on HTML5 and CSS3

The arrival of new software is always greeted with enthusiasm. And so it was when I first tried out HTML5 and CSS3. I was looking forward to having gradients work without error, and having an easy way to create boxes with curvy corners. Also CSS has lots of named colours, rather than cryptic RGB hexadecimal numbers.

I am still coming to grips with the shock horror at the deprecation of the “Center” Tag. And the denigration of the usage of Tables. Grumble, grumble.

The new features of HTML5

Many of the constructs of old have been simplified or omitted – although the old version will still work.

The standards for HTML construction have been eased, perhaps to too great an extent. Microsoft’s Visual Studio enforces a stricter standard, and for a change I am in complete agreement with Microsoft (well, it had to happen, sometime!).

And then there are the new features of HTML5, formerly the domain of JavaScript. There is now Video, Audio, Forms, Validation, Sliders, Date Pickers, Colour Pickers, Geolocation, Local Storage, Offline Web Applications, Placeholders, Autofocus, and a lot more. No JavaScript is needed.

And then there are the new Semantic Elements.

The Semantic Elements

The new Semantic Elements had me reasonably baffled. I wasn’t too sure what Semantics had to do with Websites. It sounded more the field of expertise for a professor of linguistics.

There are now new Elements for Sections, Headers, Footers, Navigation, Articles, etc. The idea, I discovered, was simple enough. The HTML structure should be understandable by coders as well as Search Engine spiders.

But the new structures, together with the CSS, do not seem to simplify the coding at all. The complexity of Headers within Sections within Articles within Headers is daunting. And then there is the complexity of the CSS3 involved. The Website coder will need to be a graduate with a degree in Logic and Semantic Differentials, before being able to fully comprehend what the new Semantic Elements features are all about.

I cannot see results oriented Website designers being bothered to use the new Semantic Elements.

The Search Engines

Whether the Search Engines gain from the new Semantic Elements is debatable. One thing for sure, they will need to have much additional logic to cope with both the traditional coding, and the new structures.

And it won’t take long before some inventive coder befuddles the Elements and Structures in order to gain better rankings.

The Older Browsers

The number of people worldwide using Internet Explorer 6 has diminished to less than 1%. IE6 usage is low enough to be ignored, but IE7 and IE8 user numbers are still too high to be disregarded.

With some minor additions, the old Browsers can handle the new features without too much bother. There is “Modernizr” which will detect support, or lack of support, for HTML5 and CSS3 features in the user’s Browser. The Progressive Internet Explorer (PIE) will add Polyfill features like rounded corners, shadows and gradients.

HTML5, CSS3 and Mobiles

The explosion in growth of the Mobile has fostered a growth in the popularity of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript – the language of choice.

Whether the success of HTML5 and CSS3 in the Mobile market will translate to the desktop and Websites is debatable. Starting from fresh to program a new iPad is one thing – converting 700 million Websites is yet another.

Current Website Practices

In order to get a feeling for the implementation of HTML5, I viewed a few popular Websites:

  • The Google Search uses HTML5. I am not too sure how meaningful this is. The secure site seems mainly constructed to prevent automated reading attempts to determine Website rankings. And the HTML code is comprised entirely of Scripting. No Semantic Elements did I see.
  • The Microsoft, Amazon and Hewlett Packard Websites are still using XHMTL 1.0 transitional.
  • Intel is one step ahead – they are using XHTML 1.0 Strict.
  • Walmart is on HTML5 – but none of the new Semantic Elements are being used.

My Conclusions

I guess we can conclude that there is no rush to use the new standards or features.

Where there is a Website that is to be upgraded to HTML5 and CSS3, I feel that most coders will follow the Walmart example. That is the functionality of HTML5 and CSS3 will be used, but not the Semantic Elements. This will make the upgrade as easy as can be.

For a new and simple Website, some intrepid coders may try their hand experimenting with the new Semantic Elements.

What Is HTML5 and Some of Its Top Benefits

There is no doubt that any internet user has heard about HTML5 Design talked about by the likes of Google and Apple.

Basically HTML5 is the most recent version of HTML or Hypertext Markup Language. This is the code used to describe web pages. It represents three types of codes: HTML which provides the structure, CSS- Cascading Style Sheets that is responsible for presentation and there is JavaScript that makes everything happen. It is the most recent evolution in the world of HTML and is the backbone of most of the websites on the internet. The last major version of the language was HTML4 that has been prodded and poked in order to meet the needs of modern web design.

Why is HTML5 such a big deal?

Why should you care about HTML5 Design after all? Ideally, there are many benefits offered by this new version and there are so many reasons why you should care about it. Over time, web designers have tweaked, augmented and stretched HTML4 beyond its original scope in their efforts of enhancing multimedia and interactivity in websites. While plugins like Java, Silverlight and Flash have succeeded in integrating media in the web, this has unfortunately come with some costs.

Thankfully, HTML5 not only adds many essential features to websites that HTML4 couldn’t offer, but also streamlines website functionality to promote better user experience. The most touted new features offered by HTML5 are offline storage and playback. It enables websites to embed media directly with simple HTML tags like audio and video without requiring any plugins. HTML5 is fortunately supported by all the big browsers like Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Firefox even though the selection of features supported differ from one browser to the other.

Besides the advantages highlighted here above, HTML5 Design offers many other benefits which should make you think about using this version in your website.

Mutuality

To enhance usability, web designers nowadays create websites that are highly interactive by including play music and stream videos options, fluid animations and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook in the site. However, before HTML5 debuted, they could only do so by using Silverlight or Flash, JavaScript or Flex tools which not only made web application more complicated, but also consumed a lot of time. However, HTML5 Design makes it easier to embed audio and video, high quality animations, charts and drawings at ease without the need to use other third party programs or plugins.

Improved semantics

Thanks to HTML5, it is now easy to see headers, footers, nav and other parts of web page as tags are now more specific and understand their main purpose and meaning in the whole format. Web design codes are extremely standardized thus improving semantics.

Improved code

By using HTML5, web designers and developers enjoy working with a neater and cleaner code by removing most of the div tags on site.

Consistency

As the website adopts the new elements of HTML5, it helps to achieve greater consistency when it comes to using HTML in coding the web page. As such, HTML5 Design is much easier and understandable and designers can easily know the structure of the web page.

Elegant forms

Web designers are able to use fancier forms and HTML5 also makes validation of form native to the HTML, enhances user interface and reduces requirement for JavaScript in website development.

Other major benefits associated with HTML5 are such as Geolocation support and improving accessibility of web pages. This is just a highlight of the benefits of HTML5 and experts believe that HTML5 will evolve to be an important online development language in the near future.

Freelance Web Designer | WordPress Developer | Hong Kong