Pointers

1.	Use open space around elements. Don't crowd everything together.
2.	Don't be afraid to use good quality, black and white or grayscale images. They can make an effective change from color images.
3.	Use no more than 6 colors in your color theme and use them in small doses. Do not inundate your audience with color "just because you can". It detracts from the content and confuses and tires your audience's eyes.
4.	Keep in mind that colors and other details such as font sizes don't always look the same on different platforms, different browsers or even on different monitors.
5.	Keep animations to an absolute minimum. Do not put animations on every page. Do not have more than one per page unless it's a very special situation. Too many animations distract the audience and cause a page to take longer to load. Make sure the content makes sense without the animation before adding it--and then only add it when it draws attention where needed or when it depicts a concept better than a verbal or still image representation would.
6.	Be careful when specifying a particular type size. If you set type to a particular point size on a Windows computer, it will look smaller when viewed on a Macintosh. Alternatively, if you specify a type size on a Mac, it will look larger when viewed on a PC.
7.	Be consistent with text alignment especially on recurring elements found on multiple pages. Don't center your title on one page and make it flush right on another.
8.	Try not to use centered text too heavily. It can work for titles, but in our culture, we are trained to read text that is flush left.
9.	Generally, don't use all caps. It makes the text more difficult to read. If you must use all caps, like in a title, make sure it is only for three or four words in a row.
10.	Underlining is traditionally used for links. Don't use it to highlight words, use bold or italic type instead.
11.	If you are using sentences, make sure you use proper grammar and punctuate correctly. Be consistent. Don't use sentences sometimes and clauses at others, especially on the same page.
12.	One way to check your spelling is to read your text backwards (last word first, etc.). If you read in the normal manner, it's easier to skip over a mistake. Of course, this only checks spelling. It does nothing for grammatical errors.
13.	Design your pages with an easy to use, easily understandable interface that is consistent from page to page i.e. if the link to something is on the upper right on the first page, it should be on the upper right on every page. Each page should have a simple way to connect to the next page, if there is one, the previous page and some sort of index and/or main page to allow easy navigation. Don't make your audience have to repeatedly use the "back" button to get around.
14.	If your page is long, you should include periodic links to the top of the page or to the area you have designated for your link interface. You should also think about repeating your links at the bottom of the page.
15.	Consider placing navigational bars/links along the right edge of the page. It gives the viewer a shorter "mousing" distance to reach. If putting them along the right edge is not for you, at least make sure you haven't spread them randomly all over the page causing your viewing audience to have to hunt around for them.
16.	Always keep your original artwork/photos as full, multi-layered (where appropriate) Photoshop files in case of future editing needs, and then save them as GIF or JPEG files when you are done modifying them and are ready to put them on your page. Admittedly, it takes more disk space to save the full file, but it will make the results of your work more consistent. It will also prevent the common mistake of merging a complicated Photoshop file down to one layer and saving it under the original name (replacing the original, multi-layered file) and then finding out that you have made a mistake and will now have to start all over again. If you keep the original file, changes are infinitely easier to make and much less time is spent doing so rather than trying to reconstruct the details in a file.
17.	Don't "JPEG" a "JPEG". If you save a file as a JPEG and then open it up, make changes and save it again as a JPEG, you will lose quality. Each time you save a file over again as a JPEG (a compressed file format), it will lose a little more quality. Eventually, you will end up with a drastic difference between your original file and the last generation of JPEG files as the final JPEG file will be similar in quality to a bad photocopy.
18.	When saving an image as either a GIF or JPEG, save the element at the lowest resolution possible (number of colors in a GIF, quality from low to high in a JPEG) to keep the Web page from taking too long to load. If your page takes too long, your audience will lose patience and leave to browse elsewhere.
19.	Try not to have the file size of all of the elements on a page total more than 50K. Using a 56K modem, it takes 10 seconds to load 50K of data. If your page elements total a larger number, it may take too long to load. If someone is using a modem, they may lose patience and browse elsewhere. In other words, you will have lost your audience.

Pointers for Proper Web Design