A website is a compilation of information on a particular subject or topic. Thus designing a website is basically to arrange and create the web pages that make up the website. A website may be compared to a book, with the pages being the web pages. All the web pages together provide the complete information package for the visitors of the website.

Web designing is the process to create a website. A website provides information to an end user who requests for the information. Technology like HTML, XML and XHTML are used to provide text, forms and images in GIF, JPEG, and PNG etc formats. More complex media can also be displayed if necessary. These may include vector graphics, animations, videos and sounds. Plug-in software is needed to run these media. Such software includes Flash, Java, and Quick Time. These are also input in the web pages using the HTML or XHTML tags.

There are many design issues that are involved in the web page designing. These may vary from commercial to non commercial organizations. But both of these seek exposure and response. For commercial websites, the objectives may vary based on the following aspects:

The information content: This deals with the information material that should be on the site and how this should be arranged to provide intended message.

The Usability: The site has to be friendly to the visitor, in terms of navigation and ease of use.

The Look: The web pages must be designed so that one single style of message presentation should be prevalent throughout. The style has to be thoroughly professional with relevant materials in appealing presentation.

The Visibility: The site must be easy to find through major search engines and advertisements.

The first web page is known as the Home page. This usually has a welcome message, a language/region selection system, disclaimer etc. Each web page is an HTML file. Each web page has its own URL. All the web pages are linked together via a navigation menu. This menu has hyperlinks that link all the pages together.

Information systems, information technology and communication design all play their individual roles. The components of a website are front-end and back-end. The front end is the content that the people can view and the back end has the source code, invisible scripts and components from the server side that process the front-end output.