Let’s think of Web Design as a communication tool, a medium via which we speak to our audience; a vast audience with no restrictions or limitations on how the message is perceived. Your Web site is the product where people are able to move around, instantly plunged into the world of product information. Let’s not forget the demands the site makes of users, --

-- requiring them to interact with it and perform certain tasks to find what they need.  All of this communication is achieved with the aid of color, shape, messaging, photos, information and interactive graphics.

So here we have an ideation, a Web design, a product, a medium using interaction, sophistication, inspiration, and logic to deliver a message. What are some processes and considerations that must take place in order to create, develop and launch a Web site that effectively delivers your message? Let’s begin with some fundamental points of a Web design: usability, accessibility, corporate branding, Web standards, SEO and visual elements of design. Yes, there really is more to it than just designing a pretty picture and cutting it up into HTML, adding some cool features, with navigation and a compelling image. Each required user action, tool, search, icon, unordered list, and heading is well thought out because each Web design has a plan, and that’s to convey a clear message to the people who visit your site.

Of course, a Web design must always be aesthetically pleasing, but it needs to be practical too. It’s the job of the designer to find the best possible way to design within the Web environment in order to communicate a message effectively while using the fundamentals of Web design. As stated by Kelly Goto and Emilie Cotter in the book Web Redesign 2.0 – Workflow that Works, “Today’s Web designer must combine form and functionally to create an intuitive user experience”. In other words, a Web design can accomplish an intuitive user experience while conveying a message with function (fundamentals of Web design), but it’s also important to highlight form (elements of design).

Before you even begin working on a Web design, it's important to first figure out how a site will be used to communicate to the people who will be using your product. There are four main elements of design to consider in this process:

• Conceptual Elements
• Visual Elements
• Relational Elements
• Practical Elements

1) Conceptual Elements

Conceptual elements refer to the non-visual elements of design. Although they don't exist physically, they appear to be present because they either create a visual line, plane or sense of volume while not occupying any area of space. On a Web site this is usually applied within the hierarchy of information. There is a connection between associated areas of information (logo, navigation, body content, footer, icons, etc.), but your eye automatically follows the established path. It’s like creating a logical order of objects for the eye to follow on its own with invisible visual cues.

2) Visual Elements

Next is the use of visual elements, which are conceptual elements that become visible through the use of shapes, color, size and textures. This concept is the most obvious and the easiest to understand because they are the elements that we see, such as a logo, navigational item or a photo.

3) Relational Elements

Relational elements describe the placement and relationship of items in a design such as their direction and position. The position of elements and how they relate and interact together will communicate to a user. We can see this on the homepage of www.hotbanana.com - the three containers below the main page banner are an example of three items which all share the same direction and relative position.

It’s an abstract idea which is dependent on understanding what people may be thinking at a particular moment in time and also how they perceive the relationship and placement of the shapes.

4) Practical Elements

The scope of a Web design is defined by the practical elements. They are the foundation of a design used to represent a product, show meaning by conveying a message, and apply a purpose to the design with functionality.

When we combine all four of these basic design elements together, we begin to understand how they interact to communicate a message within a Web design. It’s a visual communication tool that presents an opportunity to gain, interpret and share knowledge - whether basic or complex - through the use of imagery, color, shapes, symbols, branding, HTML and Web standards to effectively represent and express your product's message.

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About the Author

Christine Whone is a creative Web designer at Lyris, Inc. She works closely with customers to create and develop unique Web designs to suit their brand and marketing needs based on Web 2.0 standards and best practices.

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