“What is a third-generation web site? A third-generation site combines typographic and visual layout principles with creative design solutions to provide a complete experience to the visitor. Third-generation site use metaphor and visual theme to entice and guide. They strive to make a site feel familiar and easy to navigate, with quality content and high production values. Third-generation site designers carefully specify the position and relationships of all elements on the page, retaining fine control of the layout.” (Siegel, Creating Killer Web Sites, p 12.)

      I have been looking for examples of this so called Third-generation web site. The criteria I used in choosing sites was based primarily on my own impressions or in my own words, a site that looked really cool. By cool I mean something which caught and held my attention. I have been known to do the occasional surfing on the web and I know what is mans to have a first and second-generation site. David Siegel in his book Creating Killer Web Sites, articulates what I mean by “cool”.
     Third-generation sites draw you in and present interesting bits of information displayed in an ascetically pleasing manner. First and second-generation are concentrating on the information, third-generation is presenting the same information with a greater emphasis on design. This counters the idea that third-generation is correlated with technology. If this were true we would have already seen the emergence of fourth and fifth-generation sites. In my opinion third-generation has more to do with art and the human psyche that what our computers can do. 
      Much of what Siegel is preaching about seems like common sense: the importance of the first impression (i.e. a effective first page); use of metaphor; exits and entries are easy to find; small doses of information to cater to our short attention spans. This concept of “metaphor” is described apply in Siegel’s book: “A strong metaphor can guide a visitor and glue a site together. Metaphors must be familiar, consistent, and appropriate for the modem speeds of the Web. Metaphors pull in visitors, making them feel at home while giving them features to explore.” (p 21)
     This leads us to the site designer and the time required to make an effective third-generation site. Now it becomes necessary to plan the layout of pages with greater attention to the overall flow and navigation of a site. Planning also involves the art which will make us want to stare at our screens until our eyes cross. Third-generation sites are still not the average on the web today but this design concept is slowly catching on and is redefining the way we think of our sites.