Website Design is the art of delivering a message, which is usually done in hypermedia or hypertext to a consumer through the Internet. The reader of the information on the website would need a browser in order to access the website.
It is web design's goal to collate electronic information that will be hosted on a website which will give users the ability to read and interact with the information on the website.
The advancements that have been made in respect of web browsers has caused and allowed the use of XHTML / XML as well as cascading sheets (CUSS) to manipulate and position web page objects and elements. The latest browsers now permit viewing of these web pages without the use of plug-ins.
Web pages are either dynamic or static. Dynamic web pages have the ability to adapt both appearance and content and this is linked to the end users interaction and input as well as changes within the environment of PCs.
Static pages however do not have the ability to change content a person manually physically makes changes to a page. Simple HTML pages are examples of static content.
There has been such advancement within the computer world that there is now a clear distinction between web development and web design.
Graphic design for the purposes of developing and styling of objects is how one would describe web design. Web programming on the other hand is more to do with the functionality of web sites.
Designing of websites, web applications or web pages involves many disciplines such as: computer interaction, design marketing, photography, search engine optimization, authoring, as animation and many others.
Computer language involves languages such as: XML, XHTML, and HTML, also known as mark up languages. Then there is style sheet languages such as: XSL and CSS. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Website Design.