Design is done by desingers (graphics), and development (implementation, programming, coding, markup) is done by developers.
Designers use tools like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Ilustrator, CorelDraw, GIMP, etc.
Developers use languages like HTML, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, JavaScript.
All those have different uses. Some are script languages, some are mark-up languages. Some script languages are client-side, while others are server-side languages.
It takes a lot of unsleeped nights to cover all of it, so you might consider learning one of them, OR you might make a comitment to learn them all (design&development).
If you just want to "play" with web sites, then you might try some of many CMS (Content Management System) out there. Google for PHPNuke, Mambo Open Source. Read their documentation, play with them, and see if that is for you.
If you want to go on designer path I recomend Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks. Photoshop is more complex but more (if not the most) powerful, while Fireworks is more "user-friendly" and intuitive.
You might try Macromedia Flash too. You probably have seen some flash sites out there and you know what it is about. If not go to http://web.burza.hr/
If you want to program suff for web (like polls, forums, shoping carts, etc.) then you might go for either PHP/MySQL (free) or ASP/MSSQL Server combination. I prefer PHP, and recomend it to noobs (very easy to learn language, with a lots of built-in functions).
You'll also need some databases knowledge (especially relation databases) if you decide to go that way. As I've already said MySQL is best combined with PHP.
