Returning visitors should always check
What's New first.
This site provides tips on designing and developing web
sites and administering the computers they run on and the networks of
which they are a part. It includes tutorials on several topics.
These were written mostly in 2001 and 2002. Much has changed since then,
but the basics are largely the same. I've tried to order the topics from
the least dated to the most dated.
opinion pieces:
and case studies:
I hate the "Home Page". It's supposed to be the most important
page on a site but I've never figured out what to do with it. For
big sites that change constantly, it's an ideal place to highlight
new stories, features, topics, products, or whatever. My site
doesn't change quickly enough for that kind of use. The
What's New page serves this function much
better and is the page any repeat visitors really should book mark.
Some sites use a home page as an essential menu page to help users
find their way around the site. I'd like to think I have the most
comprehensive and usable navigation aids of any site I know, as a
standard part of every page. I do use the home page as a menu but as
the content increases, and what I say about each section linked to
from the home page decreases, the home page increasingly looks
like a rehash of the site map.
I know that most visitors don't enter the site through the home page.
Those that do seem to be mostly return users who've booked marked the
home page. At least very few who start with the home page have a referrer
and I'm not sure what else might account for this. All search engine
results and links from other sites lead to specific content pages and
not the home page.
The book, Guide to Building an Association
Web Site, will never be completed. More or less completed
sections are on-line. Clearly interests in security and open source
products pushed aside things I planned to do when I first set out on
my own.
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