Good design foundations with XHTML are primarily the knowledge and principles that any web developer / web designer should take into account while designing the front end to a website or to an application. Many applications exist in this day and age, the application that stands out the most is the application that relies heavily on a great user interaction ratio.
When visitors are using your web application, you really have about 5 to 10 seconds of whats called "selling time". You have 5 to 10 seconds to strut your stuff, and to "wow" your visitors. With so many applications available on the internet you want to keep two things in mind.
One: Make the application extremely easy to use, so easy to use that your computer illiterate grandma can use. The main reason why web applications fail is in their usability. If you don't paint a clear picture on what your application does, how can you expect anyone to be interested? During the first 5 to 10 seconds your visitors will need to know "this is how I check my mail", "this is how I sign up", "this is how I login", and so on. If they don't know the answers to these questions immediately, you will not grab their attention and their membership.
Two: Someone out there is probably doing the same thing that you are doing or developing the same functionality you want to develop. Beat them to the gun and develop a name for yourself by introducting a sleek, innovative web application that really shouts "Web 2.0!".
Another very good design principle is cross browser compatability. About 40% of the web are still using Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0 on a daily basis, your web application needs to work on all browsers so that users of all nations, and of all desktops will be able to use your application. Now some developers come to the million dollar question. How do you ensure that your web application works across the board on many different browers, and appears the same in each? Well for one, make sure that your code is W3C XHTML validated. If your webpage is validated, the search engines will have a much better time picking up your web content and your webpage will be able to display properly in most to all browsers.
The best principle to use while designing webpages for XHTML format, is to always design in photoshop and then design using xhtml. Mock up your layout in photoshop or hire us to design your application in photoshop, and then simply slice your layout and code by hand using XHTML and CSS.
Why code by hand? We can name two reasons. One reason is that Dreamweaver or Frontpage many times generate badly formed XHTML code or sloppy code, as a general rule of thumb you always want to keep your code well structured because as your website grows older, you will need to update your website. If your code is well structured it will save you time in the long run and be easier to manage. The second reason is that when you code a page from scratch, 9 out of 10 times you will be very happy with the finalized product.
Xhtml website design will save you hours in the long run and also give you the stability that you need to ensure success online.
