Just two years ago, conventional wisdom said the Internet was too important to ignore, but not critical to business. While such a comment, born more from skepticism than a grasp of things to come, would have received argument from some quarters — including this one — most business pundits now agree the Internet is critical to business.
    Today, any serious marketing strategy incorporates the Net and a well-designed Website. Yet, many businesses continue to fall short in this arena. In some cases it’s because they haven't done their homework; in others it’s an unwillingness to make the investment of both human and financial resources it takes to effectively use the technology.
    The results often are half-hearted and disappointing forays into the electronic frontier. Website budgets often are unrealistically low and improperly integrated into a company’s established marketing communications and advertising programs.
    And then there are the businesses that get it right; the ones who offer not just good-looking home pages, but Websites and Internet strategies that are effective in terms of these companies' overall business objectives. These are designs worth mimicking.
    To find out how they happened, we tracked down the people who make them happen — the Webmeisters. The central questions: What makes a site good, not just good-looking? And what are the critical elements of Web design?

    The consensus opinion is refreshing: An effective Website is an extension of a company’s overall business objectives, not a separate entity to be treated as a poor relation or stepchild.
    A good Website delivers a coherent, cohesive message. It goes beyond those "blinky" things on the home page to present truly useful information in a manner that’s visually appealing, yet also easy to navigate. A visitor to one of these sites is effortlessly, and intuitively, led along in their quest for information, products and services.
    "Lots of Web designers focus inappropriately on screen geography, placing objects on a Web page, instead of on the user interface they're creating: how the page moves and responds to the user," says Mark Burgess, president of sandiego.com.
    His firm's most recent handiwork is the Website for the Legoland theme park scheduled to open March 20 in Carlsbad. The colorful, engaging site — www.legolandca.com — is chock-a-block full of information about this coming attraction, including a virtual park tour that takes the visitor down the Lego brick road. An interactive navigation tool makes it easy to get around the site, and Java-based games offer fun for kids and kids at heart.
    "Good Web design has a lot to do with predicting the future," Burgess says. "You can’t stand behind each Web user and show them where to click. You have to build it so they'll find the interesting and useful features on their own." Sandiego.com's own Website is a reflection of the practical-mindedness of its software development-oriented creator.
Jim Drummond, manager of the San Diego Union-Tribune's SignOn San Diego, concurs. "Websites are getting better," he says. "Web designers are paying more attention to clarity — by that I mean interface structure — and performance, which is speed of use. But you still see some where there is opportunity to get lost."
    Drummond, his Webmaster Greg Dunlap and the SignOn staff are practicing what they preach with the launch of a completely redesigned site late last month. Located at www.uniontrib.com, it offers a new "interface," aimed at improving a content-rich site that’s already easy to get around and has an excellent archival search engine. Plus, the new home page has fewer and smaller graphics, and the Java-based scrolling headline feature is optional, slashing the download time by more than half.

"Graphics are really important to communication and how people intuitively steer through a site," Drummond says. "But there is a tug-of-war between trying to push the envelope and make it look nice, while not slowing down the site too much." Drummond notes that many Web surfers still use 28.8 kbps modems, not the 56.6 kbps modems or speedy ISDN and cable connections that are growing in popularity.     Bill Urkewich, director of client services at Digitaria (digitaria.com), says his developers try to keep their designs within the 40 kilobyte-per-page range. Self-described as a digital media company, Digitaria's creative director Daiga Assam has designed a very nice-looking site that effectively communicates what the company is about and identifies its clients.     Digitaria produced the recently launched Petco Animal Supplies Website (petco.com). This delightful site features small but effective cartoon depictions of cats and dogs that convey the company’s message and marketing goals. It’s easy to forget it’s about pet supplies.     "We wanted to recreate the excitement found inside the store and reflect the style of Petco's print materials," Urkewich explains.

Daiga Assam is creative director at Digitaria, which recently designed the Petco Website.

    While some of those "blinky" things are in evidence, they are subtle and enhance site navigation. Urkewich learned through user feedback that designers cannot assume that everyone using the Web knows that on most sites you can return to the home page by clicking on the company logo. To draw attention to the Petco logo, the cat and dog periodically wag their tails and wiggle their ears. "Ease of navigation is of highest concern to us," says Urkewich.

    Nonetheless, architectural and navigational issues are only part of what goes into creating a good Website. Equally important is what the overall design and layout of a site communicate — or fail to communicate — to its visitors.
"Businesses tend not to look at their Website as part of their communications strategy," contends Jacqueline Townsend Konstanturos, president and CEO of the Townsend Agency (townsendagency.com), a public relations and advertising firm. "Frequently, they will have somebody else just post the Website for them without really thinking about what the messages are that they want to communicate and how it fits under their whole communications umbrella."
    Until recently, she and her peers dealt only with advertising and public relations. But now, "you have to look at advertising, public relations and the Web, and they all have to work together. When they're all under one unified strategy, it’s one continuous message."
    Her company’s Website, created with the technical assistance of the American Digital Network (adnc.com), is best described as simple elegance. The subdued but effective style of the ADN site also is worth adopting.
    "If you don’t have a clear message, you end up wasting a very valuable communication tool," Townsend says. "Some people think that it’s repetitive to have the same information on their Websites. But it’s not repetitive, it’s clarity."
    The Townsend Agency site reflects this philosophy. The creative mind behind its design is Ken Jacobs, the agency's executive vice president. "We used a visual theme — reflecting our umbrella communications campaign — so that it’s not just a Website, but a whole strategy, and that results in branding," Jacobs explains.
    The problem with a lot of Websites created by technically competent people is that while they may be nice-looking and interesting, they don’t reflect the company’s marketing strategy or enhance product branding. While simplicity and good navigation are critical elements to a site, marketing plays a weighty role when Jacobs designs client Websites.
    The need to ensure a consistent "marketing theme" between all of a company’s materials, be they brochures, ads or Websites, is something the best Webmeisters are working hard to drive home to clients. Website development is not just about creative HTML coding and cool graphics. Today's Web customer is too sophisticated to be wowed with just glitter. The product must be an extension of a company’s goals and its marketing communications and sales programs. This must be an integral part of the design process to create an effective Website.

    Another aspect that’s often overlooked by Website owners is the need to evolve to reflect changes in a company’s marketing strategy and business model, as well as changes in the online world. "All Web sites are 'under construction' all the time," Burgess contends. "They need to be dynamic to hold the user's interest in repeat visits."
    SignOn San Diego is an excellent example. As the new site unfolds, visitors will see not only a new design, but an entirely new section under the Marketplace banner. Drummond points out that a newspaper's business model is, in fact, an advertising services medium. The Web provides an opportunity for the Union-Tribune not only to extend its advertising services, but actually to expand its operation to include sales of products other than newspaper subscriptions.
    The market place, developed in conjunction with City Search, will integrate arts and entertainment content with merchants who wish to market and sell their products and services online.
    "This is a quantum leap for us, a completely different paradigm from the newspaper," Drummond says. "On the Web, the audience expects change. You have to keep evolving, because no one has (the key to online success) figured out yet."

    Moderate to high-end Website development, even if done in-house, is not inexpensive. It’s not uncommon for even a moderate-sized business to spend $50,000 to $100,000 developing a Website. Conducting online sales transactions or integration with back office accounting systems further ups the ante.
    But for small businesses with very limited budgets, some good online alternatives do exist. These sites may not have the high-gloss created by graphics pros, but they still can be very effective marketing tools. One such site worth visiting is San Diego Weddings (sandiegoweddings.com), developed by MindCastle Interactive Designs (webcom.com/mcastle/). This charming site does an excellent job of presenting the services available and providing useful information to couples planning their nuptials.
    A low-budget alternative to hiring Website designers is creating one's own site through San Diego-based Sitematic Corp. For $29.95 to $39.95 per month, a small-business operator can create his or her own site online using just a Web browser.
    The several-page templates provided are tasteful and well laid out in terms of visual appeal as well as navigation. At a slightly higher monthly rate, a business can create a merchandise catalog of up to 100 items and conduct sales transactions online. The key to making the most of the service is focusing on one's overall strategy for promoting the business and creating brand awareness within the target audience.
    Tony Hodge, a principal in the family-owned Hodge Products, was a beta tester for Sitematic and one of its first customers. "Sitematic is wonderful. It’s perfect for someone new to the idea of going online," he says. He used the service to create his ComboLock (combolock.com) site, which costs him about $300 a year.
    Hodge's only lament is that it didn’t exist two years ago when his family's business, which distributes padlocks nationwide, went online. Nonetheless, having multiple Websites — he has "about eight" — has turned into a creative marketing strategy for the company. By setting up separate Websites for various categories of merchandise, he creates an illusion of competition.
    "This is something I could never afford to do in the physical world," he says. "Most people think it’s stupid, but it works. I don’t know anything about hTML, but I do know marketing."

    Despite various approaches and widely ranging budgets for Website deployment, the common elements touted by these San Diego Webmeisters are simplicity of design, intuitive navigation, relatively quick download, full integration with one's marketing strategy and business model, and an evolving design that responds to advances in technology and increasingly sophisticated Web users.
    These design elements make Websites good, not just good-looking. By adopting these concepts, any business can increase the appeal and effectiveness of its own Website or Website-to-be.

Larry M. Edwards is a new-media consultant and the author of the "Official Netscape Internet Business Starter Kit." He co-produced the official 1995 America's Cup Web site. Reach him at larry@larryedwards.com.