The Design choice depends on several factors.

The most important is the site’s purpose; the designer‘s angle. The client‘s own set of demands driven by the business or informational goals of the site. Some sites require simple design, short static content and few images, while others require a more aesthetic approach, involve flash animation, dynamic, database-driven content and navigation systems.

• After identifying the mission and audience, developed a content outline, storyboard, and site structure you’ll be ready for design.
• Observer and compare other designers’ works and how they handle color and typography, and the mediums to convey their message. View their source code.
• Improve your own sites by learning techniques from others.

Every purpose calls for certain design considerations and features. Some websites tend to be similar for this reason, while some others tend to have more freedom of design.

• Personal Web sites
• Educational web sites –(FIU.edu, TECMiami.com, mdc.edu)
• Entertaiment web sites: (MTV.com, Comedycentral.com)
• Experimental or Artistic web sites:
• Corporate web sites:
• Transactional web sites (Commerce-driven sites)
• General consumer web sites (snickers.com, guiness.com)
• Content Driven web sites (CNN.com, Cnet.com) tend to be the largest.

Purpose drives design

• Review the mission, and site objectives, and design for the intended audience.
• Why will they come to your site, and will they want fast and reliable access? Will they expect a high-bandwidth graphics and animation website?
• Most users are looking for information, and specific goals in mind. Meet your objectives first, then work on the visual brilliance.

What will keep them coming back?

The answer to this question is the Holy Grail of Web design.

• What is the purpose of the site?
• To what degree should the site's purpose steer design choices?
• What kind of design features might users expect from a site of this type?

Please send your comments & requests.