A lot of people do not understand the vast amount of human understanding that goes into the creation of a user friendly Web site. Layout, color patterns, Flash or no Flash, there is a lot of work involved in just trying to figure this out before the real design even begins to take place.

Behind a website’s superficial appearance lies its fundamental understanding of user behavior in an interactive service. Choices such as whether the “buy” button is red or orange or whether the navigation menu runs across the top or down the left side are much debated, but make at most a few percent difference in usability. In contrast, the design ideology can make or break a site.