Initial Thoughts
I began the design phase of this web development project by writing down a list of the features that a modern content-based site should have.
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An Appealing User Interface
Looks are important b/c that's the first thing that a user sees and a user is also more likely to want to visit a site that's more visually appealing. If a site is ugly, unclear, or unusable, chances are good that the user will be left with a bad impression of the site and also the company that is behind it.
Aside from the graphics, the site must be easy to navigate and information must be easy to find. The site must also be usable and provide a good user experience across different browsers. We are going to ensure that the site is W3C XHTML, CSS, and WAI compliant. We're also making sure that we use Section 508 Accessibility Compliant markup for any impaired visitors we might have. Feel free to click on any of the 4 links at the bottom of the page to test our compliance.
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Some Common Applications
A successful content-based website owes its popularity to its users, so we are going to build some database driven apps to allow our users to participate: a survey (so that users can participate in decisions by voting), a blog (which users can comment on or use to start a discussion), an image gallery which authenticated users can use to upload and share their own photos, RSS feeds, secure login area and others that we haven't thought up yet.
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More to come later ...
