Let’s start out bluntly: Web stats, good — hit counters, bad. So there.
You might have thought it was a great idea, but hit counters are among the things that make you look like an amateur. (Also in this category: anything that looks like a FrontPage template, and clip art….) Why? As a visitor, I don’t […]

Now you can get expert feedback on your Web site or a portion of a site (such as proposed redesigns). I launched my Rapid Review service because, frankly, I wished someone else was doing it for the sites I’ve designed. Here’s the deal:

It’s fast. You’ll get a report back in under three business days.
It’s cheap. […]

This blog is relaunched today along with the shiny new Web site for Brian Wold Consulting. Yep, I’m out on my own now, providing full-service Web consulting. Browse the nav links at the top of these pages for details on the services. Whew!
Merging the look and feel of this blog is a decent example of […]

Choosing a domain name sounds pretty simple, and in a way it is. The major registrars will even helpfully offer suggestions when your first choice is already taken by a monastery in Nova Scotia.
But there’s more to it than just picking a name. Remember, people are going to type this name into their Web browser’s […]

I’ve been thinking about the next wave in Web design a lot lately, and this morning it hit me: it’s the blogs.
Most blogs stand as silos — either unique by themselves or within a larger site but not really integrated into that site (beyond, possibly, standard headers and footers — see the LLS Tax Policy […]

No, this isn’t a test — it’s a real post about a real problem. Testing, my friends, is getting short shrift.
We’re in such a hurry to define, design, program and launch new functions that we’re glossing over the critical testing process. Trust me on this: later, when the app breaks and you’re losing customer revenue […]

I can tell already that this is going to be a multi-post rant, because I’m burning up. I’m working to configure an application for our Alumni Web Community (a “portal,” if you’ll excuse the buzzword). The fine folks at BSR Advance, who are now no longer on my Christmas card list, have made a classic […]

About once a week, I get a call from someone asking me to add a hit counter. You know, those “you are visitor #2,346 to this site” messages? The answer is no.
Hit counters have many problems, as I often explain. First off, the average Web site visitor doesn’t have enough context to understand the […]