Don't Make Me Click

Read Don't Make Me Think! by Steve Krug. Also watch this talk titled "Don't Make Me Click!": [this video] It's really helpful to deconstruct website designs. So I frequently look at a website and think about sections I would redesign, how I would do it, and most importantly - why. Sometimes I break out an image editing program and redesign the sections or even the entire page. The huge advantage with this approach is that the content is already provided. When I started learning web design, I would come up with hypothetical website ideas (like "I'll design a website for a law firm") and then try to create the content in addition to the website. But it doesn't work like that. You need content to work with before you can create the site. So you're much better off finding an actual law firm website, using their content, and redesigning sections or the entire page. Along the way, with a little help from usability resources like those mentioned above, you will also figure out which content actually belongs, which doesn't, and why. But the point is this: take something that's already built, break it down, and rebuild it.