Originally Posted by
DenverBrian
You can have a fast, functional website that is also easy on the eyes and at least somewhat in the 21st century for look and feel.
Pick two. In my opinion, the "21st century look and feel" does not help to create functional or attractive web sites. Basically the past 10 years of web UI changes (note I intentionally do not use the word "design") have all taken leaps backwards in usability and have yet to come up with a site that satisfies the conditions put forth in this thread.
Web designers need to learn from newspaper design. If you have to scroll to get the useful information, you have lost. Everything important must be "above the fold". Fisher-Price web interfaces violate this basic tenet.