Web design is the designing and graphical presentation of content shown on the Internet in the form of Web sites and other Web applications using many different forms of media. The basic design of most pages on the Web use HTML, CSS, and the newest form of language, XHTML. Many sites today also integrate various forms of dynamic, interactive content using E-Commerce, and server-side languages such as PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), and ASP. Web design contrasts with Web development, which includes Web server configuration, writing Web applications, and server security.

Web Site Design

A Web site is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. Designing a website is defined as the arrangement and creation of Web pages that in turn make up a website. A Web page consists of information for which the Web site is developed. A website might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page.

There are many aspects (design concerns) in this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects may emerge. For typical commercial Web sites, the basic aspects are:

• The site design is defined by the topic and content.
• The content, substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.
• The site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable. If the site is large enough and contains enough information, a site browser may be needed so that information can be found quickly, without using the navigation tools.
• The appearance should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, look good and most of all be relevant to the users and site content.
• The visibility of the site's text and information should be paramount as that is what the users are visiting for.
• The site must also be easy to find on the internet and if possible should be listed on most, if not all, major search engines.

A Web site typically consists of text and images. The first page of a website is known as the Home page or Index. Some websites use what is commonly called a Splash Page. Splash pages might include a welcome message, language/region selection, or disclaimer. Each web page within a Web site is an HTML file which has its own URL. After each Web page is created, they are typically linked together using a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks. Faster browsing speeds have led to shorter attention spans and more demanding online visitors and this has resulted in less use of Splash Pages, particularly where commercial websites are concerned.

Once a Web site is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet. This is done using an FTP client. Once published, the Web master may use a variety of techniques to increase the traffic, or hits, that the website receives. This may include submitting the Web site to a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, exchanging links with other Web sites, creating affiliations with similar Web sites, etc.

A relatively new technique for creating websites called Remote Scripting has allowed more dynamic use of the web without the use of Flash or other specialized plug-ins. Leading the various techniques is Ajax , although other methods are still common, as Ajax is not a fully developed standard. It is however gaining widespread popularity because of the ease involved in creating websites. Ajax , essentially is a method of making Javascript work. The explosion of the Open Source online community has seen the development of Javascript-led Open Source web design programmes such as Mambo and Joomla and the rise of Ajax-based programmes such as Ruby. Both Mambo and Joomla and Ruby are advanced Content Management Systems (CMS) which enable the creation of dynamic Web sites without the need to know code.