My Dad frequently complains that there is no "quality control" on the Internet, however I feel this is part of the beauty of the Internet: anyone can create a web site, without having to be trained, certified or approved.

This lack of quality control unfortunately leads to many poorly designed web sites that have been cobbled together, with little thought paid to the functional (ie, the journey of a visitor) or aesthetic (ie, how it looks) aspects of the site design.


When I design a website, I like to have a clear plan in my head of what the site will look like, how it is laid out, what's on each page etc. This helps ensure that the final design is coherent — pages lead logically to one another, the navigation is similar for each page, logos are in the same places and so on.

In the "Internet Age" it is important that you have an accessible website. That means a site that makes it easy for the viewer to use, to browse and in many cases, to buy from.

Coming back to my Dad again; he frequents many militaria websites and often has trouble viewing them — vital images may not load, contact details may be missing, pages may no longer work and so on. The end result is of course that the site doesn't get his credit-card number!

Another part of an accessible site is one that doesn't just work in Internet Explorer, but also the myriad of other browsers out there. I use an Apple laptop and web browser almost exclusively now and if a site won't work for me, then they have lost my patronage.

This is why I place a strong emphasis on the overall accessibility of a site, since obviously it is important that a customer gets the maximum value out of a site — good site's leave good impressions!