So what's an example of a goal? For a start, wanting to have a 'cool site' is not enough - everyone wants that! Write down everything you would hope to achieve with the site, cross out all the wishy washy stuff and see what you've got left!

My overall goal for this site was 'to foster networking and the sharing of information' - pretty sappy huh! But I do have more concrete sub goals for each section. The goal for the photoshop tutorials for example, is 'to provide clear, easy to follow projects for all skill levels' - hopefully people will take the processes away and use them in their own work.

Content for me is the easy part. A good goal makes it clear what is appropriate or otherwise. The main rule I work to is 'less is more'. Keep it relevant and concise (well I can only try!)

The photoshop tutorials goal, as basic as it is, suggests content. I needed to break down photoshop processes into groups (I've called them projects). The projects needed to be self standing but linked to each other to suit all kinds if visitors. So off I go, breaking the content into manageable, relevent, inter-related chunks.

How big should a chunk be? Who knows! Everyone has a different appetite for information. I try and cater for the people who are really interested so the chunks are quite big - I assume they will be happy to wait and stay longer to eat. But you might be making a take-a-away menu though..

With the content broken into the best and smallest number of chunks you can manage, you've got to set about wiring the chunks up so people can navigate around the site. This is where that goal set at the beginning rocks!

Rather then let the visitor decide, wire the navigation so that they are lead to or through the important stuff i.e the goal. For example, when you take the link to the workshop, you are immediately placed into the photoshop tutorials. You don't have a choice. From there though you can move to other related areas like the photoshop user gallery.

I hope that is what most people would want so rather then present a sub menu to pick a section from, they get content on every click - some times I make the choice though! I s'pose the thing I think is cool about this idea is that it's up to you to lead people to the important stuff while allowing them to both access other sections easily and feel as though they are in control - devious hey!

So the summary is:

• Define specific goals for the overall site and sections
• Use the goals to define content and chunk size
• Wire your navigation based on your goal