Draw a basic layout on paper. Save stories as text only first.

Whether you call it Mindmapping or Storyboarding, good site design going from a single page to a complex website involves planning. "Storyboarding" is a concept used to design a comprehensive Web site. Once you've thought about the elements of good web design you need to create templates to support your storyboard design.

Once you have defined all the “look and feel” issues, create templates which illustrate the layout. Templates will also solve a lot of the form and functionality issues that occur when everyone on your team goes out and designs independently.

You'll find numerous tips and tricks, and endless lists of do's and don'ts along the web. The tips I have offered here are based on numerous hours of surfing the net, and experiencing and analyzing each site as I visit. This list represents some very basic points that are good guidelines for anyone starting a site. Let content be the reason that people use your site, and let good design the reason that people keep coming back. Unless your entire mission is to sell graphics, keep it simple, keep it clean.

Create Templates Once you have defined all the “look and feel” issues create templates which illustrate the layout. Templates will also solve a lot of the form and functionality issues that occur when everyone goes out and designs independently.

The Mindmapping Process is another term applied to site planning.

You could list your ideas for how your Web site should be laid out by placing this information on paper line-for-line. This method is known as a linear method. A linear method may cause you to leave out information and also may generate a rather lengthy document when completed.

Mindmapping is taking your thoughts and literally mapping (diagramming) them out onto paper. For example, you know you want to start with a Home Page, so you might draw that in some form and label it as such on your paper. Perhaps placing it in the center of your paper, since it will be the "center" from which all activity begins from your Web site. From that center point you would begin to draw branches off of the home page, labeling it as to what that branch will be. For example, you may have people leave your home page to go to a page that describes the products you offer, so you would have a branch called Products. From the Products page, you may give your visitors links to other pages and those would be branches from the Products page.

Mindmapping is a diagram of headings, subheadings, and sub-subheadings on paper in a logical, non-linear order. It is useful for organizing the content of your planned site in a non-linear way. You may begin your diagram by drawing the main page of your site and attaching related pages in logical order all around it.

The web offers many benefits. Take advantage of them by figuring out how things relate to each other in a non-linear way. Have a graphical map of the site before you begin to build any pages.

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