The design of a website is one of the most important aspects of a website’s success and, as such, it should further the objectives of the website as much as possible. Web design has changed significantly in the past few years and it's important not only to take advantage of the new design features but also to make sure that your existing website is not characterized by its outdated design.

Web 2.0 has ushered in a new school of Web design. Web 2.0 design elements have a single goal in common: They are intended to focus the user’s attention on the main message of the Web page.
Simplicity is a key factor. Simple, bold, elegant page designs use fewer, well-chosen visual elements to guide the visitor’s eye to shoot straight for the site's goals. The user is not distracted from looking at the important content and ends up interacting with the screen features exactly as intended.

Web 2.0 designed websites tend to be centered on the screen and have two to three columns at most. They define the various areas of real-estate boldly and clearly. These areas, including: Navigation; background; main content area; miscellaneous stuff; and callouts, should be immediately distinct from each other. The main navigation of the website should be clearly identifiable as navigation, and should be easy to interpret, target and select. Generally, navigation is large, bold, clean and obvious. Links within text are clearly differentiated from normal text.

Lots of "2.0" websites contain large text, compared to older-style sites. Making text bigger makes it more noticeable than lesser elements. There should, however, be a reason to make some text bigger than other text. The larger text should be both more meaningful and more useful.

Bright, strong colors draw attention. Color can be used to divide a page into clear sections or to highlight important elements. When you have a simple, stripped-out design, you can use some intense color to help differentiate areas of real-estate and to draw attention to items you want the visitor to notice. Web 2.0 design also makes frequent use of color gradients. Gradients soften areas that would otherwise be flat color. Gradients can be used to fade a color into a lighter or darker tone, which can help create mood.

Icons play an important role in Web 2.0 design. The use of fewer, better icons that carry more meaning can be very helpful is highlighting an element. Using icons for every navigation link or tab is considered excessive. Web 2.0 designs use clear text more extensively, and are less ready to fill up a page with icons. Icons are reserved for the highest value spots.

As Web design is evolving, it is becoming less of a decoration and more of a highly functional aspect of a website. Contemporary websites have designs that are simple, elegant and uncluttered. As such, the designs are contributing to the performance of the website, highlighting important messages regarding the organization and driving visitors to perform key tasks. It is of paramount importance to keep your website current to make the right statement about your organization and to maximize the contribution of the website to your organization objectives.