Web design:  Think before you weave

There are many ways to a good web site, and one bottom line:  It must make life easier for your client and you.  Web sites miss their mark through bad design and poor maintenance.  There are three goals of web design and maintenance:  accessibility, content, and sense of place.
Accessibility.  Speed is the most basic example of accessibility.  Don't stop at fast graphics and a catchy domain name. Most people come to the web for information, so your web site must serve up menus full of information, easy to find, intuitive to navigate.  Different versions of such browsers as Internet Explorer and Netscape are notoriously different in the way the see certain elements on web pages.  Many people have their computer monitors set at 256 colors, so what looks great to your designer looks horrible to your client.  You have to test for accessibility, again and again.  One of the best ways is to have a friend navigate the site for you.  While she surfs, stand behind her, and discover that she doesn't recognize the nifty little graphical icons as being hyperlinks.

Content.  Have something to say.  Say it.  Many first-time webmasters want a page counter, a credits section with icons for all the groups they belong to, and a mail box that opens and closes.  Real cute, the first time.  While your client is being amused at the mailbox, guess what?  He isn't buying.  Duh.  If you're selling, the first thing people look for after they get interested is, The Price.  So tell them!  And provide them, in an obvious location, a way to buy.  Make it clear by saying in screaming red and white, "Buy now."  All the splash screens, streaming video, and Java fadeouts do nothing for you if they get in the way of ease of use.
Sense of place.  Here's a tricky one, because it can defeat all your successes in accessibility and content.  Give your web site some identity, cues that will make it familiar.  People need a sense of where they are, and where they might go.  Do not count on the web surfer to always read the address window and realize when she has left your site and entered another site.  Ideally your visitors will come back, provided they realize that they have discovered a real "place," not just an amorphous cloud of electrons.  You can accomplish this somewhat unobtrusively, the way the networks place a crystalline watermark at the bottom of your television screen.  You can unify your site with consistent font styles or the color themes.  An appropriate, memorable domain name gives a sense of place.  Even the navigation bars are very important, because they provide content, accessibility, and sense of place.