Web Design and Development: study guide to the SQA Advanced Higher Computing Science web area
A study guide to the Web Design and Development area of SQA Advanced Higher Computing Science. Covers web analysis and design, HTML and CSS, client-side JavaScript, server-side PHP with databases, and web testing and evaluation, with advice on how the topics connect and how to study them.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
Web Design and Development is the web-application area of SQA Advanced Higher Computing Science. It takes you from analysing a website's requirements, through building its structure, style, interactivity and server-side logic, to testing and evaluating it. This guide maps the area and links to the full topic pages.
What the area covers
The area follows one website project from plan to evaluation.
- Web analysis and design. Functional requirements, site structure diagrams, wireframes, low-fidelity prototypes and user-centred design.
- HTML and CSS. HTML5 structural and semantic elements, CSS with internal and external stylesheets, selectors, classes and ids, the box model and responsive design.
- JavaScript. Client-side interactivity with variables, functions, events, DOM manipulation and form validation.
- Server-side PHP and databases. PHP, handling form data with GET and POST, sessions, and connecting to a database to run SQL from a page.
- Web testing and evaluation. Functional testing against requirements, and evaluating usability, accessibility and fitness for purpose.
How the topics connect
The five topics build one site in layers. Analysis and design sets the requirements and the wireframes that every later topic implements. HTML and CSS build the structure and presentation of those wireframed pages. JavaScript adds client-side behaviour on top, reacting to events and validating forms in the browser. PHP runs on the server to make the site dynamic: it receives the form data, manages sessions, and connects to a database, which is the same relational database modelled in the Database Design and Development area, queried with the same SQL. Testing and evaluation then proves each feature against the requirements set at the start and judges usability and accessibility. The client-side and server-side validation split, and the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP layering, are the ideas that tie the area together.
How to study this area
Web Design and Development rewards building real pages and a clear grasp of where code runs.
- Build pages by hand. Write HTML with semantic elements and style it from an external stylesheet until the structure-and-presentation split is second nature.
- Know client-side versus server-side cold. Be able to say what runs in the browser (JavaScript) and what runs on the server (PHP), and why client-side validation is not security.
- Practise GET versus POST. Know when each is appropriate and why a password must use POST.
- Connect PHP to a database. Rehearse the connect, query, loop-and-output, close sequence, reusing your SQL skills.
- Practise past papers. Use SQA past papers and marking instructions to learn the question style across HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP.
Where to go next
Work through the five topic pages from this area, then test yourself with the area quiz. With all three practical areas covered, review the project page to see how analysis, design, implementation, testing and evaluation come together in the coursework.