Some Things to Consider When Designing Your Site

• Why are you building the site? What's the purpose?
• Who is your audience? What kinds of tasks will they perform on your site? What experience level do they need? What is their typical viewing platform?
• What kind of look do you want? What kinds of colors, fonts, visual devices? Navigation style?
• What is the intended (emotional) feel of the site? Prestigious, Friendly, Fun, Elegant, Corporate, Forward-thinking, Innovative, Cutting Edge, Classic, Familiar, Sophisticated, Elegant, Casual, Serene, Subdued, Edgy, Flashy, Formal, Powerful, Romantic, Sensual, Clean, Professional, High-tech. Here is another list of adjectives.
• Design/Development emphasis is a personal decision. Look, style, functionality, breadth vs depth -- these are your decisions, and there are no wrong answers.

Conceptual Elements of Web Pages

• Look & Feel: colors, layout (width; fixed vs fluid), fonts, images.
• Identity / Branding: headers and footers. Common look-and-feel across entire site. Common graphic elements.
• Navigation. Menus / tabs / Buttons / Words / imagemaps. Home page can be different from rest of site.
• Functionality: How can you integrate stuff you find on the Web? What are some good examples of free code sites?