Floating around the universe, are certain universal principles that transcend disciplines. I would like to explore a few of them here, and talk about how they can be applied to web design.

The Three Master Principles

#1 Simplicity

This is such an important principle, that it can easily be made into the top three web design principles, just as location is to real estate:

- location
- location
- location

… we could say the same thing about simplicity in web design:

- simplicity
- simplicity
- simplicity

The important thing to take to heart, is that your web sites should be designed to be as simple as possible. You want to keep it simple for two main reasons:

1. To make it easy for you to update.
2. To make it easy for visitors to navigate the web site.

The simplicity principle applies to design, structure and the code.

What do I mean by ’structure’ of the web site?

I am simply referring to the URL structure. So we are talking about directory structures, page names etc. I’ve detailed this in my article on intelligent paths in websites.

I think the other two (design and code) are self evident.

… Now let’s look at principle number two:

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I’ve released another video tutorial on Dreamweaver CS3 where I look at the three ways Dreamweaver gives you to edit web pages.

Video: Dreamweaver CS3 Editor Views

You can find all the Dreamweaver CS3 videos in the Dreamweaver section of killersites.com:

Dreamweaver CS3

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

Killersites.com is an old site, nearly 12 years old now!

Over that time (as we added more articles and tutorials), our directory structures and file naming styles changed as conventions changed. So now I have a huge mess to clean up.

… There is a lot of information buried in killersites.com that people just don’t find.

Fortunately, over the last 12-13 years of building websites and web applications, I’ve been able to figure out the best way to organize a website:

In this article, I discuss how to create an easier to maintain, more user friendly website by way of using intelligent paths.

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So what are ‘intelligent paths’?

I’m talking about URL structures of course! So that means a few things:

1. Building a SENSIBLE website directory structure.
2. Using meaningful words in page names and directories.
3. Using lower case text for page and directory names.
4. Using dashes between words in both page and directory names.

… Let’s go over the details.

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I’ve released part 2 and 3 of my videos on building your first web page with Dreamweaver CS3.

Video: Building a web page with Dreamweaver CS3

You can get quick access to all the Dreamweaver CS3 videos on this page:

Dreamweaver CS3 videos

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

Hi,

I just released a new video tutorial on Dreamweaver CS3. In this video (part 1 of 3) I walk you through the process of building your first web page with Dreamweaver CS3.

This video targets people new to Dreamweaver and people new to web design.

The video: Build a web page with Dreamweaver

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com