Web Development Philosophy
Websites are complex; on the front-end you have to make them look shiny and sleek, creating an effective design with which to communicate all the information that the web pages contain. On the back end, there is code that needs to be tidy and readable, which should be viewed correctly in all the major browsers and platforms available to web surfers.
To properly create a website, I break it down into three distinct, but inter-related parts: design, content, and code.
Design
I base my web design on the same principle of communication and reproducibility that I base my print design on. I choose my tools carefully, and make sure each page is optimized to best interact with the viewer. I make my pages simple to navigate and easy to read.
Content
I separate my content from my code, using style sheets, so that there isn't a bunch of junk cluttering up my HTML. This makes updating the content and managing the site easier in the future, and also helps give the page higher search engine rankings. It also allows the page to be viewed by people who have disabled JavaScript.
Code
I create standards-compliant sites, meaning that any site I build will work with any standards-compliant browser, and any recent version of Internet Explorer (since IE isn't very good at following industry standards). I organize my code and, where necessary, use documentation, allowing other developers to jump in behind me with as little catching-up time as possible.