My early interest in web design led me to all sorts of jobs at a time when knowledge was scarce, and demand was high. The apex of this phenomena for me was in 2000 when the company I worked for got bought out by Ask Jeeves. In addition to the usual web design coding in HTML, Javascript, and Perl Script, I discovered a bit of passion in graphic design while working on portions of projects in Macromedia and Adobe software. While I didn't drop everything decide to attend art school as a graphic designer, I have tried to integrate graphic design into my overall technology interests.

Examples of this integration include some websites I have created for clients while working with their overall IT strategy. In my 8 years of working on websites, my experience teaches that these are the 3 most important guidelines to web design:

Guidelines to Web Design

1. The website needs to match the company/product's image.
   This includes logos, colors, and fonts. I always try to acquire for this information when designing a website.

2. Website users have a short attention span. Help the user skim:
   • Keep web pages short, do not place important information at the middle and bottom of long webpages, or long paragraphs.
   • Use visuals, tables, and outlines instead of long text.
   • Repeat content sparingly.

3. Useful dynamic content drives traffic.
   If your website design and content shows that it is updated often, and that the information is useful, people will bookmark it and come back to the website again and again. Furthermore, your search engine rankings will increase.

If you want people to visit your website, you will have to commit recurring resources to pushing new content up. However, you shouldn't have to hire a web designer every time you want to change some content - every kid with minimal tech knowledge has a blog nowadays. With many of the projects I have worked on for clients, I have found that the value I provided in teaching them how to add and update content to the website I have created for them is just as important, if not more valuable, than the website itself.

These are some recent examples of websites I have built that allow the client to add and change their content themselves:

www.EthicalSelling.com - Designed site interface, content maintained by client (2004)

www.coloniallanemusic.com - Designed site interface, content maintained by client (2003)