Web design is the creation of Web pages and sites using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other Web languages. Web design is just like design in general: it is the combination of lines, shapes, texture, and color to create an aesthetically pleasing or striking look. Web design is the work of creating design for Web pages.

• HTML Editors and Software
• Flash
• Graphics
• Information Architecture
• Multimedia
• Principles of Design
• Usability
• Accessibility
• Web Design Glossary
• Style Guides
• Inspiration

What is Web Design

An introduction to the basics of web design and the various aspects of web design. Learn what web design is.

How To Write a GREAT Web Page
Checklist to make a high quality website. This article covers more than just design—it has tips for images, speed, HTML, content, and more.

What Does Design Mean to You
The word design means lots of different things to different people. But nearly everyone you meet says that it’s obvious what design is. They are often surprised to find that other people mean something different by design than they do. Find out what other Web designers mean by the word design and tell us what you think it means.

Web Design Process
When building a website there is a process that most designers use. This process covers all the steps from deciding on a website to building it and putting them live.

How to Design Your Own Website
Learn how to create a great website. The most critical piece of designing a website is planning. Once you’ve planned your site, then the design part comes easily. Learn how to design your own website.

What is a Website Wireframe?
When you’re planning a website, it can be tempting to jump right into the HTML editor and start building. But the best designs are done with planning, and the first type of planning you should do is a wireframe. A website wireframe is a non-graphical representation of the page(s) on the site. Wireframes can be fancy with complete representations of the entire site or they can be simple sketches …

Why Are Web Pages So Ugly?
I went to a random word generator and had it generate 10 words for me. I put those words into a search engine. I looked at the first result for that term. I decided that if I got any About.com sites, I would get a new word – as no matter what I think about About.com‘s beauty or lack thereof, my opinion is biased. I also decided to only accept one page from any given site, so if a site came up …

Web Design Mistakes
There are lots of things you can do with Web pages. And there are lots of things that it’s possible to do, but you shouldn’t do. When you’re working on a new design, you should avoid these mistakes. You’ll have happier readers and a more effective design.

What design techniques do you hate
There are lots of things that are possible to put on Web pages, but if you do you run the risk of annoying more readers than you gain. What are some features of Web pages that you really hate and would never put on your own Web page?

How to Drive Away Your Readers
Are you trying to create a site that people want to read and return to? Or are you doing things that make them never return, and tell all their friends to avoid it, as well?

Little Web of Horrors
Design tactics that will often scare away even the most dedicated reader. These tactics are the worst of the web and should be avoided at all costs.

Daily Design Challenge – Design Something Every Day for a Year
In order to become a better designer, you need to design things. In order to design things, you need to sit down and design things. This is a challenge to all my About.com readers to sit down and design something for 15-30 minutes every day.

My Daily Designs for the Challenge
These are the designs that I (Jennifer Kyrnin) have created for the daily design challenge 2010. You can follow along to see my progress as I work on learning to draw. That is my focus for 2010 and the daily design challenge. But some of the designs will be other things beyond drawing, but drawing is the main focus.

What Was the Best Thing to Happen in Web Design in the Years …
Readers share their thoughts on what were the best developments in Web design in the 2000s decade. What Web design tool or technique was the best to come out in the years 2000 – 2009.

What Was the Worst Thing to Happen in Web Design in the Years…
Readers share their thoughts on what were the worst developments in Web design in the 2000s decade. What Web design tool or technique was the worst to come out in the years 2000 – 2009.

Improve Web Designs – What You Must Know About Graphic Design to Build Web Pages
Many Web designers don’t have a background in graphic design when they start working on pages. But you can still learn the basics of good design. And these tips will help you to think like a graphic designer.

The Science of Web Design and Website Usability
Most people, when they start building Web pages, don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the reasons why they use various techniques. Learn to be more scientific in your Web designs.

Why should I use DIV tags, standards, and validate my HTML?
A question from a reader about why beginning designers should spend the time it takes to learn standards-based design.

Web Browser Window Size Matters More than Monitor Resolution
Monitor resolution is the most often used metric for determining what size to make a Web page, but is it the right one? At larger resolutions most people do not maximize their browser window, so assuming that it’s maximized will force people to scroll horizontally.

Pixel Perfect Design Does Not Necessarily Equal Good Web Design
We all know that a Web page is not a printout, but it’s still very common for designers who started in print media to attempt to make their pages look and act like printouts. However, if you decide to move away from the print beginnings, that doesn’t mean you should throw away all design principles – you just need to be less rigid in your interpretation of them.

Mathematics, Seashells, and Web Design
Many designers would like to believe that there is no way to scientifically quantify why things look good. It’s just a feeling. But the Greeks came up with a formula for classical beauty that is used to this day. And if you use that same formula on your Web pages, you’ll have a design that is pleasing and understandable to the majority of your audience.

Is Your Site Cool?
Find out why cool won’t cut it on the Web, you have to have a site that meets the design needs of your audience. From HTML @ About.

The Web is Not Print
Print designers have very different requirements than Web designers, and if you’re designing your Web site like a print project you’ll fail.

Good Web Design Is Essential For a Good Web Site
When you’re reviewing your site either to create it for the first time or to redesign it, you should use this checklist of design attributes to make sure it’s both good looking and easy to use.

10 Tips to a Great Web Page
Ten helpful tips for creating better, more useful web pages.

Using Iterative Design Approaches to Redesign Your Web Site
If you’ve been visiting one of the larger Web sites on the Internet for a long time, you may have noticed that many of them don’t do massive redesigns the way that smaller Web sites tend to. Redesigns can be very difficult for customers to get used to unless they are done in an iterative approach.

Create a Great Home Page
Learn how to grab your readers’ attention with your home page by creating a home page that gets their attention immediately. You need to get their attention and then draw them deeper into your Web site.

The Elements of Style for Designers
Just because the Web is a visual medium doesn’t mean that the basics of style that apply to writing can’t apply to Web pages. When you’re designing a site, these gentle reminders can help.

Building Your Home Page
Learn how to design a front page that explains what your business is and how it will help your customers. The first page is crucial to make a good impression and get off to a good start.

How important is pixel-perfect design?
I believe that while it’s important to create designs that look good in at least the most popular browsers, it’s not important to create designs that look identical in those same browsers. What do you think? How important is pixel-perfect design?

What is Design?
Design is a term that many people bandy about, but do we all mean the same thing when we use it? There are many definitions that can apply to building websites. Learn the different definitions of design and how they apply to work as a Web designer.

Perfection is Overrated–Web Design is Not Print Design
Do you work with graphic artists and print designers who are always criticizing your web designs? Well, they need to learn that the web is not a graphic and it’s also not print. Flexibility is key to web design.

Web Page Widths
How wide should you design your pages? The correct answer is that it depends, but this article will provide you with some tips and tricks for how to determine a good width for your pages.