I'm not a professional web designer. Web design is simply a personal hobby to release my creativity out and feed my vanity [ you guys' compliments did cheer me up ]. That's why I design in a completely amateur way and indulge myself with something I prefer calling "stream of consciousness" to "whims". I ever thought of taking web design as a career but then I gave up -- I have a strong bias that once your hobby becomes a job, it is no longer fun. But I do make every effort to make my stuff look neat and pleasant to eyes, at least my own.

My design process is more like a kid's game. I came up with a design idea and play with my design toolkits to approach it. I enjoy the process but obviously it's not an effective way. My mind changed a lot and sometimes I got lost in it. I am stumped on some trivial problems from time to time and sometimes have to start from scratch. So I start to ask myself: is there any better way to design while I don't have to lose my fun?

Ryan Singer's An Introduction to Using Patterns in Web Design sheds a light for me. I apprepriate the chunks patterns very much and get inspired a lot. The most important aspect, I think, about the design patten, is that it can not only be applied to web design but multimedia program design [ such as the multimedia mathematics lesson units I'm working on ] and even life! Some points are summarized and put in my own words:

Be aware of all the bits you have to deal with to achieve your goals and write them down

Figure out the relationship between the bits and organize them together

Make sure what bits are more important than the others and make them your priorities on the way to success

Take steps to achieve your chunk goals and put them together

Then you make it!

I know it sounds cliche, but it's always better to keep it in mind right?