Website design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; interface design; authoring, including standardised code and proprietary software; user experience design; and search engine optimization.

The term web design is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end design of a website.

As web designers we have an awareness of usability and we are also up to date regarding web accessibility guidelines.

Since the start of the 21st century the web has become more and more integrated into peoples lives, as this has happened the technology of the web has also moved on. There have also been significant changes in the way people use and access the web, this has changed how sites are designed.

Database driven Content Management Systems or CMS’s as they are generally known have become very popular for a number of reasons:

• Decentralized maintenance.
• Configurable access restrictions.
• Consistency of design.
• Content is stored in a database.
• Dynamic content.
• Extensions and expandability.
• Content scheduling.
• Access Control.