With the explosive growth of the World Wide Web, the number of businesses using it on a daily basis has expanded rapidly. Today's Web sites support the businesses they represent with a palette of powerful features that provide a wide range of useful services. Web sites no longer function as stand-alone objects but as crucial facets of corporate organizations, cohesively linked to the business's back-office functions. With Web sites growing ever more complex, Web design projects have come to require input from a wide variety of skilled individuals. Today's Web designers play a pivotal role, gathering professionals from many different fields and leading the team toward a successful outcome. It bears repeating that great Web sites come from great Web designers. What concepts do Web designers draw upon to create their sites? What troubles do they overcome on the path to success? An outstanding Web site represents the crystallization of an enormous store of precious expertise. By studying a large number of worthy examples, we can learn a great deal about the craft. The Internet is easy to access, and this is no less true of the very best Web sites. Yet any individual can only access a tiny sample of the countless points of light in the galaxy of the World Wide Web. For an individual surfing the Web, picking out the most exceptional sites is a daunting task. Compounding this difficulty is the fact that the Web is changing every day, as content available one day may be replaced by something quite different the next. Online content can change without notice, so an outstanding sample may not appear in the same form from day to day. By capturing the content of superior Web sites, we hope to increase the opportunities for Web users to encounter those sites for themselves. We are convinced that, by collecting these specimens of excellence and describing to the wider public the thought processes and expertise that went into the site, we can help to make the Internet of tomorrow a more exciting, informative and entertaining place. Date of publication : July 2002 Bookbinding : A4-size, soft-cover book (perfect binding) Number of pages : Total 400 pages (including advertising) Price : ¥10,000 (Selling price in Japan) Number of copies to be printed : 10,000 Number of sites to be included : Approximately 250 (of which, 200 sites will be from public submissions) Editors : Web Design Annual 2002 Production Committee Publisher : Graphic-sha Publishing Co., Ltd. For inquiries : Web Design Annual Production Committee wda_info@kinotrope.co.jp Copyright 2002 Web Design Annual Production Committee.