| Web designers will tell you that having fresh content is an absolute imperative when it comes to designing a site. The exception to this, of course, is that you may not necessarily need visitors returning again and again to your site. Perhaps you're only interested in that one visit. Designating a "What's New" section of your Web site is a nice way to give users a quick overview of how much content you're putting (or not putting) on the Web site. It's kind of like a commitment benchmark. When we see a site with a "What's New" section, and their first several articles are more than a year old, we get concerned. Such is the case with Snell & Wilmer, an Arizona law firm that was, the home page proclaims, voted the best law firm in Arizona in 1993. 1993?! Four years is a long time, and the general feeling one has after visiting this site is that little has changed in that time, at least with regard to the Web site. The JavaScript scrolling message ("Welcome to Snell & Wilmer") strikes us as distracting (is there anyone that likes that "feature"?), and in general the presentation is little more than basic HTML. A lack of graphics makes the site pale next to some of Snell & Wilmer's peers, though the use of a persistent text-based navigation bar and frequent options to return to previous menus make navigation of the site a breeze. More than anything, Snell & Wilmer has to find some content to put in the "What's New" page. Once that happens, the site will find some life. |