Philosophy
20 May 2010
Balance and Simplicity
I believe that every site must have a well balanced design and a simple enough user interface for even the most non tech-savvy person to follow. A well balanced and simple website will ensure a “happy browsing” experience, and at the same time keep users from becoming lost and ultimately leaving your website. A well balanced and simple website will eventualy drive its own traffic, and keep traffic for longer periods of time.
Speed
Any given web page must load in less than three seconds or the user will become agitated and want to leave the website. I believe that a well designed website will have fast load times without the need to sacrifice the design or quality. This is why I personally optimize each page by compressing scripts, converting images into a web friendly form, and calculating load times. This is all done to ensure that no page will take longer than three seconds to load keeping your users happy and wanting to stay on a well designed fast website.
Security
The worst possible thing that any website owner ever has to do is draft a letter to their customers explaining that the website’s customer data has been stolen by a hacker, and the customer’s identity has most likely been stolen. The security of user data is of the upmost importance and should be guarded with tooth and nail. I believe that an unsecured website is not a website, it is a target. This is why every website I build has the ability to keep its guard up, denying any hacker permission to its most sensitive areas, the administration area, and database information.
Search Accessible
Without the internet search engine the internet would not have the impact nor the reach it has today. The search engine makes the internet, and the search engine makes websites. I believe that a website can be optimized for the search engine without having to sacrifice design or structure. To make the website search accessible I identify and name every tag and every image, this keeps the original design while still being crawl-able and comprehensible to a search engine robot.
