By no means. However, you have to know the rules before you can break 'em. A well- designed page, whether in print or on the Web, is a thing of beauty. A skilled page designer can take widely differing elements like body text , headings , graphics , links and whatever, and arrange them into a harmonious whole. Most readers know nothing about fonts, leading, justification or kerning, but can subconsciously sense when a page is well laid out, just as people can perceive the difference between a good and a bad photo or audio recording, without actually understanding the technical issues that make it good or bad.
Good design is practical as well as aesthetic.
Well-designed pages are easier to read, and lead your readers' eyes where you want them to be led. In this article, we're looking strictly at the visual aspects of page design. The practical aspects of organizing pages into sites, and providing good navigation tools, were covered in a previous article . Nor shall we go very far into the technical tricks involved in achieving various design effects. For that, you'll want to consult an HTML tutorial .