Jeffrey Zeldman has written an excellent article over at A List Apart concerning how we perceive web design as a discipline. It's an easy mistake to think of web design as an extension of graphic design, many designers have made the move directly from designing for print to online designs. Those of us with some experience in these matters know however that there is much more to the discipline than producing pretty pictures and then converting them to HTML.
We get better design when we understand our medium. Yet even at this late cultural hour, many people don't understand web design. Among them can be found some of our most distinguished business and cultural leaders, including a few who possess a profound grasp of designâ€"except as it relates to the web.
Zeldman proposes that architecture is probably the closest design discipline to web design. A good architect defines a space and then hands it over to people who will fill that space in whatever way they see fit. Similarly a good web designer will define the page environment into which the content can fit rather than trying to design for specific content without knowing how that content will change over time. Jeffrey puts it eloquently as:
Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity.
We have a duty as a web professionals to help our clients to understand this concept in order to avoid misunderstandings and to ensure that we provide a satisfactory service.
A List Apart: Articles: Understanding Web Design