Constructing a web site

• Audience: Define a phantom friend.


• Aim: Work out the purpose of the site from that person's perspective and using the language they would use.


• Scope: List all the things your phantom friend would want from a site with this purpose, again ensuring the language is theirs.


• Prioritise: put this list in the phantom friend's order of importance.


• Navigation: pick the top of the list (six maximum) and simplify to create your main navigation.


• Content: now work out what content you need to create so that the navigation goes somewhere meaningful.


• Remember to keep using their language not yours.


• Only when all this is done should you think about those fiddly little extras like, erm, design and coding.


• Oh, by the way. When you're doing the design, use their language, not yours.