Animated images, flashing buttons, and surprise pop-up windows are cool, but if you're serious about your business' web site, steer clear of snazzy multimedia.

A functioning, user-friendly web site calls for less flash and more clear-cut information. You need a site that's user-centric. It should be easy to navigate, clearly written, and laid out well -- you want it to pull in traffic, not scare it away.

So how can you ensure a high-quality site? Have the right approach from the getgo.

What's your mission?

Before you jump into the actual design, think about the mission of your site. What kind of message do you want your web site to get across to your customers? This does not mean what you want to tell your customers, but rather: what they want to know. There's a difference.

What facts, questions, and tools can reel them in as customers? The entire design should be focused on them. Don't use your site like a billboard ad - your visitors are already there.

Form a team

Forget about giving sole responsibility to your marketing team. You'll end up with more than you want - or need. It may even be wrong.

Assemble a diverse team. You can hire contractors, or look internally to grab people from every corner of the office:

• Assign a producer to manage the project and make sure implementation of all the parts goes smoothly.
• Use those gifted in writing and editing to create clear, concise and typo-free content.
• Steal your designer from marketing to design the look and feel of the site.
• If you've got a technically-sophisticated back end to your site, you'll need a programmer.

Organization is key

Don't assume that if your site has fast-loading pages, your visitors are going to be satisfied with surfing your site. It needs to be easy to navigate, and that means not letting any user get lost on your site.

Getting lost is easier than you think, especially to a first-time user.

Your users should know where they are, where they came from, and where they can go at all times when on your site. This means having links to the previous page and next page on all internal pages, as well as a link to your homepage (think of the glowing "home" buttons that you see on most web sites).

Site indexes, maps, and search tools are also integral to a site that's easy to get around in.

Don't forget maintenance

Once it's designed and posted, your job still isn't done. You need to keep updating and checking for annoying broken links. You'll find a cease in traffic if your site gets stale.

A great deal of planning and thought goes into designing a well functioning site. But if you go into it with an open mind, diverse team, and your users' needs on the front burner, your site will be a busy hub of web traffic.