Simplicity rules - less is more! A design that is too busy with excessive graphics, fonts or colors distracts from your intended message.

Be consistent - Establish a pattern for your layout, navigation, color scheme and typography and carry that from page to page. This allows users to adapt quickly to your site.

Content over form - Focus on the goal of communicating a message first, and then decide on how you want to present the information and how it should look.

First impressions count - Get to the point on the first screen visitors see, which is your MOST valuable real estate on your website. Don't make viewers go hunting. You must make an impression within seconds these days on the web.

Be inspired - Draw inspiration from things you like and objects around you. See my inspiration page for some hints.

Limit the number of colors you use. Three or four colors throughout your website usually suffice. If you have trouble choosing complementary colors, try a monochromatic scheme with one accent color. See some color combination examples.

Use graphics sparingly and wisely. Try to keep images small enough to load quickly and reuse them when possible to take advantage of caching. Make sure they are relevant to the content of your site.

Consider whitespace. Make sure you leave enough negative, or open space between design elements in your layout. This "breathing room" will help to guide the reader's eye from one point to another.

Keep text content short - Web users tend to scan the text on a page, so keep paragraphs short and concise and don't use overly wide lines of text which are hard to read. Use columns if necessary, or use bulleted lists to grab viewers' attention.

Make it easy to navigate. The goal of any navigational system is to offer the user a clear and simple way to access all pages in a site. Don't hide your navigation under images that must be moused over to reveal their destination. Also don't bury information too deep - no page should be more than 3 clicks away from any other page.