Web design is the design of web pages, websites and web applications using HTML, CSS, images, and other media.

Web design is part of starting a website (web development) which can include web server configuration, writing web applications and server security.

History

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web published a website in August 1991, making him also the first web designer.[1] His first was to use hypertext with an existing email link.

Early on, websites were written in basic HTML, a markup language giving websites basic structure (headings and paragraphs), and the ability to link using hypertext. This was new and different to existing forms of communication - users could easily open other pages using browsers.

As the Web and web design progressed, the markup language used to make it, known as Hypertext Mark-up Language or HTML, became more complex and flexible. Things like tables, which could be used to display tabular information, were soon subverted for use as invisible layout devices. With the advent of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), table based layout is increasingly regarded as outdated. Database integration technologies such as server-side scripting (see CGI, PHP, ASP.NET, ASP, JSP, and ColdFusion) and design standards like CSS further changed and enhanced the way the Web is made.

The introduction of Macromedia Flash into an already interactivity -ready scene has further changed the face of the Web, giving new power to designers and media creators, and offering new interactivity features to users at the expense of partial search engine visibility and browser functions available to HTML.

Website design

A website 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 website is developed. For example, a website might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page.

A website 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 an Enter Page. Enter pages might include a welcome message, language/region selection, or disclaimer. Each web page within a website 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.

Once a website 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 webmaster may use a variety of techniques..