file:///I%20am%20Santa/Desktop%20Folder/design1.html

Design considerations are very different for an Intraweb to an Interweb and affect considerations of what technology to use. What bandwidth is available for the typical user ? What is the likely platform it will be accessed by ?
If the content is developed to be only used within a computer laboratory where there is control over configuration and capacity of machines and high bandwidth, then its quite feasible to use sophisticated multimedia content (such as streaming video and audio) relying upon specialised browser plug-in's, and provide a flexible and attractive alternative to CD-ROM.
If the content is to have a wider public audience, is it an information resource or publicity ? Will people visit once or keep returning ? What browser technology level to author for, HTML 1,2 or 3, what plugins ? Dual technology implementations can be done but add complexity.
The technology must suit the content and must fit within the constraints of bandwidth.

Content (words, diagrams, images, media elements) rather than design and implementation take by far the most time to develop.
What form is the content in now? It may be more pragmatic to provide a minimal html structure and use plug-in technology and convert existing content. e.g. Virtually any postscript file can be converted to a PDF file and viewed with the Adobe Acrobat plug-in. Rather than converting an Authorware or Director package to HTML and Java converting the interactive into segments and embedding in HTML may be more efficient. Plug-in's exist for MS Word, Tek and LaTek plus many others.

Probably the most crucial design decision is how the information content is organised and structured. Many web sites have great graphics, useful content, but are very difficult to find what you want. You shouldn't have to use a search engine.
Set a navigation criterion, such as any peice of information should be accessible in three mouse clicks.
Information structure should be flexible and logical so that it can be easily modified and extended.
Avoid long lists, they take excessive time to read, and the link being looked for is often missed.

Everyone thinks they're the best person to be a web designer, whether they're a tech-head, libarian, graphic designer, print publisher or content developer. The truth is aspects of all these skills are needed and rarely found in one person. Develop a design team each with responsibility for different aspects of the project, and each with some understanding of the constraints of other aspects.
Spend some time browsing, find sites with a similar purpose and appropriate what's good.
What sort of visual and information design is needed and practical should come out of an analysis of the purpose and content, within the constraints of bandwidth and technology. Develop an appropriate design:

Use a consistent look and feel across pages, users will know when they've left your site, and it'll be easier for them to navigate. Develop template pages.
Don't over design e.g. flashing animated gifs are highly annoying when trying to read text; waiting for useless or oversized graphics to download is also annoying; meaningless navigation icons are confusing. K.I.S.S.
Striking graphics and nifty animations are great for visual impact and publicity purposes, but where a user is accessing a site regularly or for long periods of time background images and clashing colours quickly become nauseating.
Avoid huge slabs of text, web pages are suitable for browsing not reading. Break text into easily assimilated chunks, full text versions can be made available as a pdf or postscript download for printing and concentrated reading. Where there is a lot of text make sure its easy to read (not mauve text on a green background).

Netscape Gold for basic layout and positioning.
BBedit for direct HTML, JavaScript, multifile text search/replacing
Photoshop with the Gif89a and ProJPEG plug-ins for images and logos (use JPEG for images and GIF for graphics is the general rule).
WebMap for image maps
Site management tools such as ClayBasket are useful for making global changes to many pages.

Conserve Bandwidth wherever possible.
Check to see how your pages look on different platforms and browsers, Mac's and PC's have very different default colour palettes.

Develop a minimal prototype and test it on some typical users. Take note of their comments, but also watch to see if they have difficulty finding things, or can understand what the icons are for. See if they wait for pages to fully download or skip around.
Use this information to improve the design, add more content and try again. As the site becomes more complex it may be necessary to restructure content several times to maintain a clear and meaningful structure.