As for the typography commandment, I think BW is right. I don’t think they’re saying “use more pull quotes and drop shadows.” I take that as meaning: use type sizes, bold, etc. in a coherent hierarchy of information that can be quickly understood by the visitor; and make it readable! So many web sites use tiny type that is fatiguing to eyes over the age of 40, or color combinations of type and background that are headache-inducing. When I was trained as a graphic designer, it was all print, but some of the principles still hold: before you introduce a new font, style or size, you should have a reason that helps convey the information. That’s part of what “worshipping” typography means. Elsewhere on Sitepoint in one of the articles featured in your latest newsletter, one of your bloggers makes a similar point.

As for Commandment 10 — you’re the *editor* of Sitepoint.com and don’t understand why content is king? I can’t design a good site for someone if I don’t have at least the basic content they’re starting with. Yes, content can always be added to, but we have to start with a basic framework. The visual part has to work with the content and help convey the “personality” of the site. Is the tone friendly, formal, businesslike, quirky? Is the audience male, female, or both? How are we going to organize the site? I’ve been designing web sites for 9 years, but I’m new to Sitepoint, and have found the newsletters really helpful. Therefore, I’m shocked at your attitude given your position within the organization.

wish to create a professional design, depending on what you’re building, you will need this early on.

To be clear: If you are building a news/information website/blog, a sitemap is critical before you begin. If you are building a brochure-type website, the content AND the sitemap are critical before you begin (put it this way – try designing a professional print brochure without content -> it’s simply not possible).

Is it content that is critical or a complete understanding of the content to be expected? It is not reasonable to ask a client to hand over all text and images that will be on the site at the beginning of the process. It is reasonable confirm the type of content and maybe even some excerpts or mockups of content. Am I wrong?

No. Design supports the communication of the message. It doesn’t take center stage. This is one of the basics of design.

• Thou shalt not abuse Flash.
I don’t particularly care too much for the design ability of using Flash. But I do a lot of data presentation work using flex. The ability to show different sets of data and being able to view them in different ways – several types of graphical and tabular ways, showing hiding columns, highlighting rows is very useful from a business user’s perspective. Business users are already used to seeing complex tables.
It is jolly hard to do this using javascript. Also in flex everything happens instantly. No server trips to fetch data.

• Thou shalt not hide content.
Ad revenue aside, a javascript confirm popup is almost mandatory when confirming deals worth millions of dollars. Sometimes even if they confirm I still take them to a sort of “final final” confirm page after which nothing can be changed.

• Thou shalt not clutter.
Again from a business users perspective we need to give them a choice on what they see on a dashboard. Some type of admin page where they check uncheck what they want to see immediately.
As long as the clutter is classified and labeled properly then clutter is fine. Its like some of us work best on a cluttered table, others prefer their desks to be hospital clean. Give users a choice, that’s all.