Basics of Basics on Website design

Remember when I started on doing web design for people, I am rather baffled or rather stunned by the so many different types of websites that are available in the world. For any keyword search in Yahoo, or Google, you will see more than a few million sites, or URLs.

It was like a million different things that appear in front of me per hit. Talk about information overload.

Then, gradually, after looking through tons of sites and doing a few on my own, I come to understand that there are 3 general categories of Website.

1. Informative websites
Informative websites are the most boring sites in the Internet. With only a goal of transfer information to it users, this type of websites do little interaction with its users. At most, it has an enquiry form that captures users' data for enewsletter or feedback. Other than that, it is just a large book online for people to know more about a certain company. some examples would be: www.gov.sg or www.nlb.gov.sg

2. eCommerce websites
Yes, most websites are for commerce, and hence ecommerce sites. But the sites I mean here actually means, websites that has a shopping cart that allows the users to buy from the site. www.ebay.com.sg maybe one of such sort. This type of site is more interesting than informative sites as it allows users to interact with the site. And it provides information for the users to make decision online too. So in a way, it encomposes the functions of informative websites and empowers it with a transaction module.

3. eCommunity Websites
These sites are interesting sites to build communities. Forums and sorts, can be one of them. Full interactions are available on such sites. People connect to each other while connecting to the website. People can buy and sell to each other or people can buy from the website. Such interesting sites maybe www.amazon.com

4. Search Engines
These type of websites are the prime sites currently in the market. Google and Yahoo, the major players in the market are reaping in millions basing on a search engine platform. Other than these, msn.com and a few thousand more are found around the world.

Well, I think that is about it. Do remember if you need to do any of the above sites, you need to know their variations, how it suits your needs and your budget.