This is more of a discussion than a question. I'm not an artist and I'm not very smart. I'm just hoping that when I design my site that it makes sense.

We all want to do a good job with the presentation of our websites, or those we do for others.

The question that I ask myself first is, what is the purpose of my site? Is it going to be international, national or local? Is it a product or a service?

Next, I ask myself, from a VISITOR'S point of view, what do I want from the site?

Graphics don't get you search engine rankings, content does. The exception to this is the new social media/search engine mix (either thru Bing or Google, I don't remember which), that ranks your site higher based on how many PEOPLE, not robots, 'Like' your site.

Common sense in your design can go a long way in having people relate to your site. Too much artwork, and your visitors get on their ponies and head for the next corral to find the CONTENT that they're looking for. Too many technical words, and your visitors don't understand your material. Whoa, horsie! Gotta get on and head out.

As an example of that - I went to work for a company in '98 that had the engineer doing the website. Very little graphics and I didn't understand what the company did, based on all the techie words on the website. Next, they had an artist do the website, and I couldn't understand what the company did, based on the fact that the artwork did not match the words. So, SOMEWHERE over the rainbow (between the two), skies are blue.

How many of us know what Usability Studies are? (How user friendly a site is.) Is your content specific to a specific industry or trade, or are your visitors just poking around for some general info that will help them accomplish their goal (whatever that may be).

So I think, 'usability'. Do I make it EASY for my visitor to get around my site, to know where they are, and to go where they need to go and can find their way back? For example: Did you ever borrow a friend's car that you've never driven, in the dark? Could you find the headlight switch? The parking brake release? How to turn down the radio that was blasting away when you started the car? How to dim the instrument panel lights that were almost blinding you?

So, ease of use.
What about:
Is the header graphic so big when the site opens that you have to scroll down just to get to the content?
Is there a slide show that just won't stop distracting you and you have to scroll down to get it off the viewable screen? YES! Your slides ARE relevant to the material, but how many times do you make your visitor look at the slide show just because YOU like it!

Any the biggest common sense usability mistake we make? Putting a nav button (menu item) that says HOME, ON THE HOMEPAGE. This is nothing short of giving someone a map to the driveway at their residence, where they are already sitting in their car, having them back up, then pull forward again into their parking spot. They are ALREADY THERE! As an extension of this, there should never be a nav button (menu item) to the page they are already on.

K2 gives us the tools, but we have to use those tools in a way that makes our visitors happy with the content that we've delivered, pleases the search engines, and leaves us satisfied that we've done a good job in design.

I put this in the new to k2 section, because we need to think about these things up front, not at the tail end.

What do you think?