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PAGE DESIGN
If you ask why something works and you push back far enough, eventually everything seems to be based on contrast: the ability to distinguish one thing from another. Composition, sequencing, even legibility all rely on devices that affect the contrast between things.— Chris Pulman, The Education of a Graphic Designer
We seek clarity, order, and trustworthiness in information sources, whether traditional paper documents or Web pages. Effective page design can provide this confidence. The spatial organization of graphics and text on the Web page can engage readers with graphic impact, direct their attention, prioritize the information they see, and make their interactions with your Web site more enjoyable and efficient.
Visual logic
Graphic design creates visual logic and seeks an optimal balance between visual sensation and graphic information. Without the visual impact of shape, color, and contrast, pages are graphically uninteresting and will not motivate the viewer. Dense text documents without contrast and visual relief are also harder to read, particularly on the relatively low-resolution screens of personal computers. But without the depth and complexity of text, highly graphical pages risk disappointing the user by offering a poor balance of visual sensation, text information, and interactive hypermedia links. In seeking this ideal balance, the primary design constraints are the restrictions of HTML and the bandwidth limitations on user access ranging from slow modems to high-speed connections such as Ethernet or DSL.
Visual and functional continuity in your Web site organization, graphic design, and typography are essential to convince your audience that your Web site offers them timely, accurate, and useful information. A careful, systematic approach to page design can simplify navigation, reduce user errors, and make it easier for readers to take advantage of the information and features of the site.

Visual hierarchy
The primary task of graphic design is to create a strong, consistent visual hierarchy in which important elements are emphasized and content is organized logically and predictably.
Graphic design is visual information management, using the tools of page layout, typography, and illustration to lead the reader's eye through the page. Readers first see pages as large masses of shape and color, with foreground elements contrasting against the background field. Secondarily they begin to pick out specific information, first from graphics if they are present, and only then do they start parsing the harder medium of text and begin to read individual words and phrases:
Contrast is essential
The overall graphic balance and organization of the page is crucial to drawing the reader into your content. A dull page of solid text will repel the eye as a mass of undifferentiated gray, without obvious cues to the structure of your information. A page dominated by poorly designed or overly bold graphics or typography will also distract or repel users looking for substantive content. You will need to strike an appropriate balance between attracting the eye with visual contrast and providing a sense of organization:
Visual balance and appropriateness to the intended audience are the keys to successful design decisions. The most effective designs for general Internet audiences use a careful balance of text and links with relatively small graphics. These pages load into browsers quickly, even when accessed from slow modems, yet still achieve substantial graphic impact:www.williams-sonoma.com
When establishing a page design for your Web site, consider your overall purpose, the nature of your content, and, most important, the expectations of your readers.

SITE DESIGN
In architecture as in all other operative arts, the end must direct the operation. The end is to build well. Well building hath three conditions. Commodity, firmness, and delight.— Sir Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture
THE DESIGN OF THE SITE will determine its organizational framework. At this stage you will make the tactical design decisions about what your audience wants from you, what you wish to say, and how to arrange the content to best meet your audience's needs. Although people will notice the graphic design of your Web pages right away, the overall organization of the site will have the greatest impact on their experience.
The fundamental organizing principle in Web site design is meeting users' needs. Ask yourself what your audience wants, and center your site design on their needs. Many organizations and businesses make the mistake of using their Web sites primarily to describe their administrative organization, and only secondarily do they offer the services, products, and information the average user is seeking. Most readers won't care how your company or department is organized and will be put off if such inside information is all your site appears to offer. Talk to the people who make up your target audience, put yourself in their shoes, and make the items and services they want the most prominent items on the home page.
Notice, in the illustration below, how the major categories in the Yale–New Haven Hospital home page center on the needs and interests of various audiences, not on how the hospital is organized:

Organizing information
Our day-to-day professional and social lives rarely demand that we create detailed architectures of what we know and how those structures of information are linked. Yet without a solid and logical organizational foundation, your Web site will not function well even if your basic content is accurate, attractive, and well written. Cognitive psychologists have known for decades that most people can hold only about four to seven discrete chunks of information in short-term memory. The way people seek and use reference information also suggests that smaller, discrete units of information are more functional and easier to handle than long, undifferentiated tracts.
There are five basic steps in organizing your information:
Divide your content into logical units
Establish a hierarchy of importance among the units
Use the hierarchy to structure relations among units
Build a site that closely follows your information structure
Analyze the functional and aesthetic success of your system
Section contents
"Chunking" information