Step 2: The Foundation

Every building must begin with a strong foundation if it is to stand the tests of weather, wind, and time.  And so an Internet Beacon must begin with a strong foundation.  The foundation of your site is, of course, the layout and navigation.

I strongly believe that web sites are supposed to be tools for communicating information to other people, not exercises in writing spectacular HTML code to impress programmers and engineers.  In other words, the medium is not the message.  So I'm not snobbish about the use of WYSIWYG editing tools and templates, as opposed to hand-coding every page.  (I built the site you are reading with Microsoft FrontPage, using a template.  The world does not appear to have come to an end.)  In fact, I think that the availability of good WYSIWYG tools makes it difficult to justify a poor site design that interferes with good communication.  Your site doesn't have to be a masterpiece of art -- some of the Internet Beacon Award winners have had very basic, minimalist layouts -- but the layout should be uniform throughout the site (including backgrounds), easy on the eyes and should not irritate the viewer.  

As the old saying goes, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."  So the first impression I have of your site is important.  Does your site look like it's a credible, reliable source of information and resources?  (I admit that this criterion is rather subjective.  But so are your visitors!)

Navigation should be easy -- your material should be easily accessible from anywhere on the site.  It should be organized so that the viewer can find needed information without having to click through 10 or 12 pages.  It is also advisable to avoid "mystery meat navigation" (using pictures rather than words, so that one must point to everything on the page in order to get anywhere on your site.)

Your text should be easy to read.  As I find myself growing older, I find that I have a great deal of difficulty in reading fonts that are so fancy that I have to individually decipher each letter, or so small that I must pull out my magnifying glass.  There should be sufficient contrast between text color and background color.  (Light text on a black background is very hard on the eyes.)

Since I am a writing teacher, I have a very low tolerance for spelling errors, grammatical errors and punctuation errors.  For good communication (especially to people for whom English is not a native language), spelling matters.  Grammar matters.  (I do make allowances for British/European spellings.)

And how does it aid communication when your text is fOrMaTtEd iN aN aNnOyInG mAnNeR lIkE tHiS?  Or Even In A Slightly Less Annoying Manner Like This?  OR LIKE THIS?  And since we are used to reading left-justified text, why would you want to center-justify all of your text?  (I can certainly understand centering a few key paragraphs and elements here and there, but not the entire page.)

My basic philosophy here is that your layout and navigation should aid communication, not interfere with it.

Still with me?  Proceed to Step 3: Construction

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