The line between art and design seems to be very blurred when used in the context of the 'web. A designer and an artist can be (and usually are) two totally different things. An artist has no bounds, generally artists are out only to impress other artists with their skills and creations. Their pieces are generally not purposful, and are a creative outlet only.

A designer on the otherhand, is designing for a purpose. The reason they are designing their product is for someone else to use.

There is a short anecdote about this which I was once told by an industrial designer, it goes something along the lines of...

"once there was a company who wanted to design a personal music player, they asked two people to go away and create a prototype for such a device. 

One was an artist, and the other was a designer. After a few weeks, they presented their finished devices to the boardroom. The artist presented his first, it had metal spikes all over it, was roughly the size of a basketball, glowed deep colours, and to activate a function, you would use a set of unmarked spikes. The boardroom was amazed at the artists creative ideas, this device would be a masterpiece in any art gallery.

Next, the designer presented his portable music player, it looked plain compared to the artists, but it had raised, well marked buttons for controlling it, was designed to fit into a regular persons hand, as well as a smooth case to slip into your pocket, it was designed to be very light and small for maximum portability.

The boardroom decided to go with the designer, even though the design was less striking than the artists masterpiece, the music player took into account its users and provided function and design specifically to help users use it. In short, it put functionality and design first."

The point this little piece is trying to make is if you are "designing" something, you need to always put first the reason you are designing and who it's for. Definately something many designers should keep in mind.