At Forum One we are always attempting new ways of delivering better looking web sites more quickly and within the budget. One of the techniques that we grown fond of and have incorporated into our process for most projects is creating what we call a hybrid page. A hybrid page contains text and visual elements such as H1 tags and buttons that can be used on many pages through out a web site. These elements are provided from the visual design in a comp that is consistent with the web site existing grid layout. View the hybrid page we developed for Forum One's web site redesign.

I was at a conferences yesterday and the speaker demonstrated several tools that you may find useful for selecting color schemes

Hierarchy. Strong, consistent visual hierarchy is key to a quality design.

Q : What is visual hierarchy?
A : Important elements have the most emphasis. Least important elements have the least emphasis. So, a user's eye should move around the page from your most important content to your least important content.

First impressions are paramount. Especially in the web world. Let's see how this site strikes me - the new user.

Seems like you can't forget a holiday if you're on the internet.

I'm specifically looking at the Poetry Tool. You can get to it from the global navigation or from a feature on the home page.

Sometimes we get requests from clients to "utilize every pixel" on a page. When asked to expand we hear something to the effect of, "There's an empty space in the header. What can we put there? We need to use that space." What they may not realize is that every pixel is being utilized, but that doesn't mean that text or a graphic occupies the space. It's white space!

Reuse, recycle, but don't reinvent the wheel unless necessary.