eb Design is commonly used to describe the entire Website creative process, from planning to graphic design to development (programming) to marketing. However, when ABD Insights talks about 'Web Design', we are referring to the creative process of designing the graphic interface so that it is both appealing and usable. From our standpoint, the most crucial elements of Web design are message, functionality, usability, compliance, and extensibility.

Message
As the classic quote goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Likewise, the design of your Website will speak volumes to your visitors about your organization--your level of professionalism, your commitment to excellence, your seriousness, and most importantly your message. Your Website should drive home a message to each visitor and reinforce the values of your organization.

Functionality
What is your Website supposed to do--drive visitors to the products, promote your services, inform? Your site design is a critical component of your site's overall effectiveness and functionality.

Usability
We follow Jacob Nielsen's (useit.com) five quality components for usability:

• Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
• Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
• Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
• Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Compliance
We strive to create designs that adhere to w3c standards, CSS best practices, and compatibility among common browsers, platforms, and screen resolutions. Although statistically most visitors will be using Internet Explorer with a 1024 X 768 screen resolution on a Windows-based PC, your Website should be compatible with Apple (Mac) and Linux computers, viewable on a 800 X 600 screen resolution, and should render perfectly on Firefox and Netscape browsers.

Extensibility
Once your site has been built, it will grow. We design to anticipate this growth and to allow for uncomplicated updates.