Design and Content

Design is more than the look of the page and the fonts you choose. It’s also how the material is presented an used, how the navigation gets you from place to place, plus any interactivity — like forms, or membership log-in areas.In its simplest form, bare-bones design is putting unadorned text and graphics together (content) and linking pages to other pages in the site and outside of it. (That linking is what makes it a world wide web.)

– You decide what the site will contain. A one-page info sheet for your business? A bunch of your high school poetry and some pictures of your dog? A home for your online diary (blog, weblog)? A big community site with forums and memberships? A catalog of all your wares?
– You decree what it’ll look like, according to your skill level, your taste, or the skills of whomever you hire.
Disco balls? Flashing lights? Quiet pinstripes?
– You decide how big your site will be. Do you want a mansion or a simple information kiosk? How many rooms (subdirectories with webpages)? Sparse and spare, or lush and overstuffed? Organized or chaotic?