to prototype or not to prototype, that is the question
It looked as a simple task: make a simple html prototype of this possible web. It then converted into a horrible nightmare of html delicatessen: ooooh we must convert this png into gif because it would be smaller… why don't we make the border of the tables fancier? … oh let's put px instead of % … no… better put % instead of px, and no pt … and by the way let the tables use the 100% of screen width (even if I repeated once and once that reading small 10 px text along a 21" screen is like making a harakiri). Finally it ended like it started, gracefully, as a simple prototype. Remember: don't even let the prototypes convert into final applications (specially when the deadline is very very near you); don't go into unneccesary details and focus only in the really functional things…
