When In Doubt, Steal

Hopefully, if you're planning to make or remake a Web site, you're spending a fair amount of time looking at other sites, deciding what works and what doesn't. Take notes while you do this research; make detailed notes about site features that work for you and about features that give you heartburn.

Perhaps you like the "liquid layout" of ThinkGeek.com that allows it to look good in a browser window over 1000 pixels wide (see Figure 2-5) and equally fine in a window only 650 pixels wide (see Figure 2-6).

Figure 2-5. ThinkGeek shown the full width of a typical 15-inch monitor screen: 1024 pixels wide.

Figure 2-6. Same ThinkGeek page, this time in a browser window only 650 pixels wide.

Whenever you notice a useful site feature that you like, make a note. And note that "liquid layout" that automatically adjusts a Web site's layout to match different browser window sizes is a good thing in general; browser windows can vary, depending on monitor size and individual preference, from as small as 500 pixels wide to over 1000, although the most common minimum width for a displayed Web page is now generally considered to be 750 pixels; if your site requires a minimum browser window wider than that, it is going to be hard to read for people who have standard 14-inch or 15-inch monitors running at their default resolutions.

Now go look at another site. If you're making an advertiser-supported news site, perhaps you like the way NewsForge (see Figure 2-7) carries its most prominent banner ad under the masthead instead of in the more typical top-of-the-page position. Write that idea down too.

Figure 2-7. Top of the NewsForge.com front page.

Wander around the Web, jotting down not only site features you like but also ones you don't like. Then show your list to co-workers and friends. Maybe they have other little tricks and features they've spotted that you'll want to add to your list. Maybe some of the features you like turn others off for one reason or another, and you'll want to remove them from your list. Between you and your advisors, you are also likely to come up with a substantial list of both "good" and "bad" site features.

Obviously, when you make your site, you are going to want to use as many of the features on the "good" list as you can, and you are going to want to avoid everything you have on your "don't do this" list, but what's a little less obvious is that you can happily "steal" most of the design and navigation features you and your associates liked and incorporate them into your site design.

The trick to online feature-stealing is to not do what TV programming executives do when they directly copy last year's hit shows; instead of taking one site's entire concept and design and trying to duplicate it, try to find a few bits here and a piece or two there that appeal to you, then use those bits and pieces as inspirations. If you make a site that looks just like Yahoo!, and does pretty much the same thing as the original, why would anyone want to use your site instead of the real thing? There are plenty of bar bands that can play every Rolling Stones song note for note but will never be as popular as Mick Jagger and crew. Bands that get beyond the local scene almost always do it with their own original music, staging, and performance style.

It is possible to steal plenty, and still turn out an original work. William Shakespeare stole most of his plots, and at last look some of his plays were still reasonably popular hundreds of years after they were written.