What is a Website?
On the face of it, this might seem like a simple question. People who use the web regularly take the notion of websites for granted. We have some idea of web pages sitting "out there somewhere" that we can visit at will using a browser.
Developers tend to talk about websites in terms of "design" and "functionality." Users tend to talk about websites in terms of the tasks they want to accomplish, whether the task is finding information, purchacing a product, or playing a game. But websites are more complicated than that.
Websited are communication environments established by the interactions among users, computers, software, web sites components, and the developers.
First and foremost websites are spaces for communication exchange, the goal of which is for users to accomplish tasks, even if the tasks are as simple as sharing information on static pages.
Websites are more or less "open" virtual spaces.
Open" means two things, both related to consistency and user expectations: first it means that hyperlinks within the site and to other sites allow users to move beyond site boundaries at will. Second "open" means that standards and conventions are very fluid, leading to varied designs and functionality—and often uneven experiences for users.
Websites are major development efforts integrating diverse components.
Keep in mind the complexity of development efforts that may include both dynamic and static content, hundreds of individual pages and graphic files, and multimedia components. Though development technology is changing rapidly and becoming more dynamic and multidimensional all the time, designers must plan for differences in users' available technology.
Companies and organizations committ significant resources to creating and maintaining websites and the development process often requires people with different sets of skills to work together. When you start creating websites, it becomes important to consider websites from a number of perspectives—particulary from the users' perspective.