SQA National 5 Computing Science: a complete overview of Web design and development
A deep-dive SQA National 5 Computing Science guide to Web design and development. Covers web analysis and design (wireframes and navigation structure), building pages with HTML and hyperlinks, styling with CSS selectors, adding interactivity with event-driven JavaScript, and using media files with standard formats and compression.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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Web design and development is examined in Section 3 of the National 5 Computing Science question paper (candidates attempt either this section or the Database section) and forms Task 3 of the coursework. It covers designing and building a website with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and media. This guide maps each key area; each has its own answer page with worked examples.
Web analysis and design
Analysis identifies the end-user requirements (what visitors need) and functional requirements (what the site must do). Design has two parts: a wireframe sketches the layout of a single page (heading, navigation, text, images, links), and a navigation structure plans how the pages link together (often with the home page at the top).
HTML and CSS
HTML builds the content and structure using elements written as tags, including hyperlinks made with the anchor element <a> and its href attribute. CSS controls the appearance using selectors: an element selector styles all elements of a type, a class selector styles elements with that class, and an id selector styles the one element with that id.
JavaScript and media
JavaScript adds interactivity and is event-driven: code runs in response to events such as onclick, onmouseover and onmouseout. Media files (graphics, audio, video) use standard file formats and are compressed to reduce file size, so pages load faster and use less storage and bandwidth.
Testing and evaluation
The finished site is tested against its functional requirements - working links, correct event behaviour, media that loads, consistent layout - and then evaluated for fitness for purpose, like software and databases.
How Web design and development is examined
Expect to identify requirements, describe wireframes and navigation structures, write or read HTML and CSS, name and match JavaScript events, and explain media formats and compression. The reliable marks come from keeping the wireframe and navigation structure distinct, matching each CSS selector to what it targets, naming the correct event for each action, and linking compression to file size, loading speed and storage.
For the official course specification
The SQA publishes the full National 5 Computing Science course specification, specimen question papers and coursework tasks at sqa.org.uk. Always revise from the current specification and SQA past papers.