General Overview

Web Design comprises of four main stages:

Like the development of a Computer Program, the main work is in the analysis of the project, in order to make sure it fits the requirements of the client and that it does what it's supposed to do. The development stage includes implementation. The final stage includes testing, and maintenance and upkeep.

Backend code can be quantitively assessed - whether it uses tables or not - whether it is cross browser compliant, and whether it is accessible using screen readers or devices. All of these elements make up the web design process.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets are used to describe how your website looks. It's possible to create a completely different look and feel, using a different set of style sheet rules, without having to recode a web site in it's entirety, which can often be a very time consuming process. Furthermore, text only - or print versions of a website can be created with less development time than using a rigid table based approach to site design.

Graphic Design

A lot of thought needs to be put into overall design. Using plain and simple colours, providing easy to use functionality, and making pages quick to download are all key aspects of web design and fundamental attributes to a website's success. Using a tool such as Photoshop or Fireworks to create web pages in the first instance will help with layout previews, and creating mock up pages. The web page itself then needs to be sliced and images optimised, depending on whether they're best as GIF's JPEGs, PNGs or even flash elements. All of these affect the look and feel of a website.