After 15 years of designing web sites I'm completely, absolutely and positively sure...

1. Deep down, everybody hates "splash pages."

2. No matter how amazing your site is, half the visitors won't go deeper than the home page so make sure it imparts everything you really want them to know.

3. Visitors are twice as willing to scroll than click so don't be afraid to have long pages (even the home page).

4. Visitors are twice as likely to click on a simple text link than a graphic text link.

5. Menus are necessary but are not invitations to click.

6. Complex multilevel drop down nested menus cause a kind of "option overload" that discourages clicking.

7. The best way to make people click is to make the link a text teaser as in "Barak Obama Naked."

8. Visitors will only delve deeply into a site if they can move smoothly from text teaser to short precis to complete information item (no further clicks required).

9. Visitors have a sixth sense about whether a site is updated frequently. If they sense it isn't "alive" they won't come back.

10. I wish there were more than nine things I know for sure about web design.

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