Do's and Don'ts
In General
- Be knowledgeable of all 3 goals:
    1) User’s
    2) Owner/Client’s
    3) You/Your company’s

- Be adventurous, have fun but remain consistent

- Know your Technology

- Feedback is good.
    Enable a path within the solution and make it visible.
     - Dedicate someone to review this daily.
          - It will impact all your/company’s projects.

- Learn
    - Ask questions, if you can’t, have someone ask for you.
    - Read about your craft and the industry.
    - Work on personal projects (expand you local vision)
          - Study, and take notes.

- Nothing is impossible
    - Just be mindful of resources, time and budget

Navigation
- Know your content type before laying in navigation

- Don’t assume the user has time to spend
    - Provide immediate impact with a clear path.

- Make sure the user always knows where they are
   Avoid Roach Motels
     - Always provide a way out.
         - Preferably to the next logical subject stage.

- Identify subject hubs before categorizing content
    - Consider building sub hubs and even spin-off sites for:
        - irregular content/procedures.

- Employ subject hyperlinks
    - In a natural path to extend navigation.

- Limit navigation to top hierarchy and keep it consistent
    - Five is a good number for subject hubs.
        - If there are more, think about incorporating or consolidating the           structure further.

- Be mindful that visitors may not start at the home page
    - Keep navigation in context
        - As with search engines, breadcrumbs and associated content           links are always useful.

- Don’t use links entitled “Back” or “Top”
    - Studies have show these links to be too subjective and literal.

Instead think about what the next step the user would follow (subject stream). “Back” could literally be interpreted as returning to the search engine that landed them on the page (if they hadn’t started within the site, very possible if they just clicked on a forwarded URL) “Top” could be considered a path to the beginning of a subject hub “Top of Page” is more to the point but still at issue. Let’s say a news article is very long. Think about what the user would click on once returned to the top of the page (meaning that “Top” is just a link to yet another link). In situations like this bottom navigation or even a bottom page repetition of breadcrumbs or static subject path is preferable.

Brand
- Branding as a user centric tool
    - Branding is more than colors and fonts.

Ease-of-use and successful navigation paradigms are also part of the brand. The web goes much further than collateral branding. Think of a particular “brand” as a custom “experience”. That brand should be consistent across all one client’s web solutions and even influence printed collateral, presentations and even show events. Think of the web as one door to a client’s solution. Now imagine the brand to be a clearly identifiable, universal key to all those possible doors.

- Icons should be part of the brand, don’t overuse them
    - Clearly identify them to the user and stick with a limited set
        - Underused is bad too.
          Avoid the unique or original ones that only get used
          once or twice.

Content
- Don't burden home pages, they should be like glass doors
    - You’ll never see glass doors to a corporate lobby cluttered
      with Post-It notes.

- Don’t assume everyone speaks the same “speak”

- Have someone totally detached review your wire frames
    - It’s possible to get too close and get into a rut.

- Identify subject hierarchy
    - Offer options for linking similar content.

Architecture
- Don’t get too close
    - Regularly ask people detached to review your work.
    - False ownership is natural.
        - Criticism is inherent and one of the best guides you have.
        - Discern between subjective and constructive criticism.
             · Even subjective criticism is valuable.
                   - Others are likely to have a similar view.

- Be consistent. Even when it hurts at first
    - If different pages require different solutions...
        - Think about consolidating irregularities.
            - Even if it means starting over.
                - You’ll get it done faster and learn more.

- Obtain as much first hand information as possible
    - Project managers are your partner and timeline owners.
        - Work with them to sit in on overview sessions.
        - Manage/own all the white boarding.

- Don’t assume an industry professional will instantly know how
  to use an industry tool
    - It’s like landing in a foreign country with a parachute.
        - Everyone enters at the lowest level of understanding.
            - And remains dense for at least 30 seconds.
                - Just imagine a user’s initial skill and experience level
                  to be that of a 13 year old and you’re safe.
                   - Initial adjustment time may be longer for some.

The Market
- Know the lifecycle of your web solution
    - How long will the solution be up?
    - Will there be associated sister sites?
    - Are there phased plans to replace or evolve the project?

- Support and contribute to Discovery efforts
    - This preliminary work will enable...
        - Rapid, targeted design and development
        - Assured usage and solution success
        - Happy customers expansion in client base

- Employ your internal resources when possible
    - User Experience personnel can best frame questions
      to address the correct solutions