A good rule for web design, just like most things in life, is "If there's no reason to have it, don't include it." If you don't need a search engine, calendar, blog, or a Twitter feed on your site, keep them off. Focus on your content, what you really want to say. And if you have a ton of content, consider yourself lucky.

But how do you present all this "content" stuff as an appealing, clean, and understandable home page?

Prioritize. Make a short list of what is most important. Design according to needs, not according to what's cool and trendy.

The home page screencap to the left is one of our projects, the 2007 version of Schoolguides. If you click on the graphic, you'll be taken to a working version in our archives.

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