You can learn the language in an hour and never master it in a lifetime. Much of good home page design depends upon forgetting all of your preconceptions about traditional publishing. The Web is more than a newspaper, different than broadcast media such as television and radio, and is truly a new medium that demands new concep tual thinking. The principal thing to remember when designing your home page, or when trying to keep from throwing too much money at a professional, is that this medium is interactive. In case you think that you and your design professional are in control, remember that even if you can make yourself attractive enough to find, many browsers never come back to a page that doesn't offer something valuable.
Value is a perception in the eye of the user.
The image that you think you are presenting to the world is not necessarily what is being received either. In effect, every browser gives the user control over the presentation of the Web document, including the ability to control fonts and whether graphics are shown. In addition, not all browsers are created equal. Not all support Level III, and the Web page that your hot shot designer creates may look like mush to a first generation browser viewed on a basic system. The Future Lawyer learned this lesson the hard way.