I first wrote this guide back in 1998 when I was starting up a web design business called Harbor Moon Web Design (the birth of harbormoon.com). It was my way of showing potential clients my thought process in developing a site, not so much from a technical standpoint but instead based on my understanding of customer focus.
Of course, today I no longer have this business in operation but I continue to use these guidelines because I want visitors to enjoy the experience of visiting my sites. Fifteen years later, I still believe that this guideline is as relevant as ever.
This guide is meant to brief the reader on creating clean, creative, and quality web sites that grab your attention and make an impression. What this guide is not is an HTML tutorial. To learn more about that subject, just Google “HTML tutorial.”
Please note that this site offers one opinion on the topic of good web page design and has been designed to enlighten interested parties about how to create a successful presence on the World Wide Web… the smart way. These rules are not written in stone because rules are meant to be broken and sometimes we bend the rules just a little (I do!). However, there are too many examples of web sites that demonstrate poor design and bad style. These lessons should give the beginning web designer an idea of how to avoid turning a good idea into a bad result. We’ve include all the tips and tricks we’ve learned and let you know what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t work.
Enjoy!
— Jeff Moon