Design is where you specify the details of your Web project based on what you have gathered during the planning and the content collection and preparation phases. Designing a Web site means that you:

• define the information architecture of the Web site;
• define and design the interface and its visual features; and
• define the technical implementation requirements.

The design stage aims to document the key decisions you and your team will make about:

• how you organize, classify, describe and structure the content on your Web site, resulting in grouping, labelling and navigation;
• how the pages will be laid out, what content will go in them, and what visual elements will characterise the interface; and
• the way the Web site will be built, the functionalities it will offer, how it will be engineered.

By following the design guidelines, you will ensure that you have a clear, detailed blueprint of the new, or redesigned Web site. This blueprint will be according to the decisions you made during the planning phase and based on the content requirements you identified in the content collection and preparation phase.

The Web site manager usually leads the design phase with the technical support of the information architect, the interface designer and the Webmaster, having consulted with KCE and KCT.

The guidelines and procedures described in this section are derived from the WAICENT Framework Project Approach: in particular, they are based on "Stage 1: Project formulation and user requirement definition", and "Stage 2: Design and Development" (for user requirements definitions and content, interface and technical design respectively). These stages are laid out in the WAICENT Framework Project Cycle Checklist approved by the WAICENT Committee in December 2002. The Checklists for Stage 1 and 2 have been adapted to Web site project design, including small-scale projects.

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