This rapidly expanding outgrowth of the Internet, a chain of computers linked around the globe by telephone wires, has allowed a communications system formerly controlled by governments and universities to be accessed by a broader public. That public has used the Web to fulfill a mix of agendas, from the Net's traditional function of providing e-mail communication and access to information, to such new activities as advertising, shopping, and commercial publishing. These expanded functions have stimulated the demand to see and display compelling images, strong corporate identities, and accessible user interfaces. Restrictions regarding typography, layout, and the size of image files on the Web are rapidly diminishing, allowing designers greater visual freedom.

The Web hosts a range of discourses, from electronic fanzines to elaborately produced product promotions. Advertisers eager to assert their presence on the Web find themselves in the curious postion of providing not only vivid sales pitches but also content--from corporate time lines to on-line soap operas--interesting enough to engage browsers for extended periods. Designers have a role to play not only in glamorizing commercial messages but in shaping meaningful content on the Web.

If CD-ROMs are electronic analogues to the book--finished documents delivered to consumers in tidy packages--publishing on the Web has closer ties to the magazine, a genre whose character and content must be sustained across time, never located in any single issue. The vitality of a Web site depends on continual revision, dying out when authorship reaches a halt. The Web is an ephemeral medium whose audience seeks constant change.

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