Web site design is all about creating a good web site. Web site design & development is about understanding your audience, choosing your target users and building something that will make sense to them.

Web site design should not only focus on looks but it should be more about usefulness and convenience. Most importantly it should be user friendly.  Professional web site design requires that a web site is not built, based on what is ‘cool’ and trendy. The key to web site design is to give the user what he expects, in a way that he needs it.

Understanding what a project entails is the first step towards designing a good web site. Once a clear understanding of your business plan with its service and/or product is determined, you need to define a target market; this "niche" is essential in order to build around rich content (relevant text, animations, sounds, videos, graphics) that will support the objectives and mission of the business. It is very important when developing content is to keep always in mind your potential clients, in other words "how users will benefit" from doing business with you.

Web site design need to take active part on these communication principles like simplicity, download speed, usability, word effeteness (search engine optimization), easy navigation, accessibility, trustfulness, credibility, color appeal, proportion, logic order, organization, sense of comfort, eye gaze patterns, branding, positioning and friendliness are among the concepts that must be considered for users to feel attracted and stay interested in your web site.

The concepts mention above respond to a web site design necessity of maximizing users response to objectives set from the beginning; these objectives may be quantify by the amount of traffic coming to the web site, by the amount of sales being processed, by the level of interest users are showing to a particular promotion, newsletter subscription or contact forms being filled.

Web analytic and statistic allow you to track users that are visiting your web site and within days, a proper follow up will show what pages were requested for viewing, which pages are most popular, which show low visit rates, what keywords are working and which are not, where the traffic is being originated from (important to campaigns tracking, link evaluation) etc...; this information resulting from this traffic reports, complete with data graphics and charts to aid in data analysis may determine the need to improve web design in some areas or others.

Inevitably your Web site design and development will have a few more requirements, aspects that perhaps have not been considered. Feedback should now become the driving force for changing and improving web development that has already been done. As has already been discussed, the most important aspect is the consumer. Even after the web site design has gone live, new requirements are likely to show up halfway through the project. Some quick and creative design work normally takes care of any such situations.

Also, the link to your web site should be marketed well by appearing on every piece of correspondence and marketing material your organization generates (direct mail, printing ads, advertising, etc...). If you have developed a company look, logo and graphics when doing your web site design make sure that you use same material in your traditional marketing effort in order to create and promote your business product or service by keeping a distinctive design all together (branding).

When targeting a web site to a specific area or locality, the web site domain (www.yourbusiness.com) name must appear visibly displayed in every advertising piece and space areas available where local residents are likely to look; think networking.

Before the web site design goes live, professional web site design requires the making of prototypes. This is the case for almost all products, they have to be tested before there are marketed fully. Placing it in front of potential users and observing their reactions can test a quick prototype. It is important to note how these users handle the web site design. Another essential key to Web site design and development is testing the usability of the web site. Short and simple tests with representative users are a good way to determine possibilities your web site design possesses.

Bottom Line:
If real estate is about, 'location, location, location' then web design is about, 'communication, communication, communication'. The skillful Web-marketeer will understand this and use their web site design the way it was always supposed to be used, as a means of communication; but that communication no longer has to be delivered in mere text form, but rather it can now be delivered using all the multi-sensory media tools available. The tricky part, of course, is knowing how to use these tools properly.

Inevitably your web development will have a few more requirements, aspects that perhaps have not been considered. Feedback should now become the driving force for changing and improving web development that has already been done. As has already been discussed, the most important aspect is the consumer needs. Even after the web site design has gone live, new requirements are likely to show up halfway through the project. Some quick and creative design work normally takes care of any such situations.