The step of deciding whether the "chunks" relate to one another and grouping them accordingly is a brilliant idea, and probably the key to really clean interface design.
I'd say it's one of two keys to clean UIs - the other is once you've grouped logically-related bits together, do a quick bit of research to see how others handle similar functionality. For me, that's what really closes the loop and creates valuable design patterns.
Executive summary: When designing a page focus on the semantics first, and the rest will come together. Don't prematurely optimize the interface, instead figure out what pieces of info and user actions the page should contain and figure out what pieces relate to eachother and which are independent. Then group the interdependent pieces together into "chunks", then prioritize those chunks on the page. You'll get a modular design that is easier to tweak.
aka: Information Design 101
Wow, are there more of these?
if you weren't joking, just read their blog.I looked for a category to filter all posts about design, didn't find it so here is a google site search with 'web design' as the key