STEP BACKGROUND
Web sites development was evolving in size, depth and sophistication both graphically as well as functionally. It’s too tedious, and it takes too much time and money to build a web site. Web site authoring tools are too limiting. Most are glorified word processing applications. They are either page-based or not open enough to support rapidly changing technology.

STEP OUTCOME
Many of the key features of the product came about just by watching and interviewing hard-core web site builders. The notion of an application that would take into account a site structure evolved out of the mapping practice at Studio Archetype. The idea of site view came from the belief that the user should be able to look at the whole site, just like how Quark or PowerPoint provide the user an overview, as opposed to doing it in MacDraw page-by-page. Pixel-level control and WYSIWYG requirements were the basis for the page-layout capabilities of NetObjects Fusion. Editing web pages in enhanced word processing-like applications was at best a dysfunctional model for serious web site building. It needed to be as sophisticated as the layout functionality of PageMaker, Quark XPress or Macromedia’s Director. The tool had to be scaleable to support growing complex web sites. It had to provide explicit support for the information design that lets the author structure the information site-wide. It has to provide an intuitive graphical user interface that does away with complexity while providing access to sophisticated functionality. It had to support all major standards and platforms. It had to support the depth needed for advance users and usage. And most importantly, it had to automate and simplify the process of designing, authoring, publishing and updating web site.

Process
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