Web Site Design

      This entire site is a decade out of date and should be ignored. It is maintained only to prevent broken links from occuring. 2009-06-25

      The World Wide Web ("the Web") is the first major new communications medium since television. Whenever a new medium arrives, it takes years for the average developer to learn to exploit it effectively. When television arrived, advertisers did not immediately understand the advantages of short, snappy ads, which were both cheaper and more effective than longer ads. Each medium has its unique strengths, weaknesses, and patterns of effective usage.

      Unlike radio or television, the Web requires the active participation of the user. Each Web "surfer" selects an experience and then decides how it will unfold and at what speed. Surfing the Web is thus a very different experience from watching television.

      While the Web has some important technical limitations and still lacks an agreed cultural vocabulary, it offers some singular advantages as a medium.

      Let us begin our look at Web site design by examining some common uses of the Web.

Kunstler.com
Crawford Systems designed James Howard Kunstler's Web site.
Continue on to Uses of the Web