Focusing on appearance too early in a project is another way to get sidetracked down the garden path (and lost in the tulips). Website appearance is important, but like a nice set of clothes, appearance looks best when it adorns a sound framework.

The framework of a website is the HTML or XHTML markup code. In recent years there has been a movement on the web towards ‘open standards’ and ‘the semantic web’. This means the structure of a properly coded modern site now has meaning—it’s not coded for appearance and we now handle that separately.

So, if you understand the purpose of your site and know what you wish to communicate we can design a structure that is meaningful. It is into this structure that we slot your content. The content is of course your message or whatever stuff you are publishing.

And now we can concern ourselves with ‘appearance’ and make your functional, purposeful site look good!

Recap: purpose > structure > content > appearance