- Thou shalt be clear about what the hell thou art presenting to the user.
- Thou shalt design the site so that it's appropriate for your audience
- Thou shalt make more important parts of any given page layout more prominent than the less important parts of your page.
- Thou shalt not use too many colors (or fonts). Thou shalt attempt to learn something about color harmony (and typography)
- Thou shalt kern thy type. (and lead and track) In other words...LEARN PROPER TYPOGRAPHY!
- Thou shalt look at thy site on a variety of browsers and devices.
- Thou shalt make clear and intuitive navigation (should always try to follow the two-clicks rule) which does not change from page to page.
- Thou shalt optimize thine images.
- Don't use display type for body copy...body copy is meant to be read. Use display for titles only
Use common serif or sans-serif for body copy which helps the site visitor focus on the content - not the design. In other words:
it's not about you!