When it comes to the world of design, having one’s own aesthetic and taste is admirable. But more often than not, those who are working on projects involving bytes and bits should focus on the basics, especially just when starting out, to ensure the final product is one that’s easy to navigate and instinctive to use. Plenty of different big-name restaurants and clothing lines pump tons of cash into pages that ultimately just confuse surfers, because most people who are using a website are more interested in a bit of information than whether or not it’s possible to cram three songs and five different flashing images onto the main page.

Whether starting out in the game of design or trying to get the most out of time spent coding and Photoshopping so that the final product simply makes more sense, here are top website designs that are worth following. No matter what the purpose behind the design, opting to go with these cornerstones of successful layout will have web surfers content and clients even happier.

#1 – Less is more. When it comes to graphics and photos, that is. Plenty of different companies have pursued the whole “let’s put everything possible onto a single page” game for a while now, but the fact is that with anything else that can be designed, a site should not be crowded and cluttered. Give the information and the logo breathing room, and notice how much more time people spend poking about the site. Unless the goal is to overwhelm the audience with something a bit retro or ironic, there’s no reason to have flashing graphics and noises going off all of the time.

#2 – Remember connection speeds while designing. Sure, plenty of people have upgraded to speedier ways to get online, but just as many are using slower connections. Keep this in mind when you consider doing something particularly image-heavy, or embedding a bunch of content that’s going to take forever to load on anything other than the highest-speed connection. After all, no one can see a brilliant design if they cannot even get to it.

#3 – Make the important parts easy to find. This sounds so simple, and yet countless designers–even those working for Fortune 500 companies–forget about it. Basically, if there needs to be a log-in or something to click on for help, then these need to be in regular places that people intuitively look for when visiting a site. After all, the purpose of having a presence online is so that people can consult the page for information. And making it tougher to get to that information won’t be winning any long-term customers.

#4 – Fonts make the first impression. Sure, layout itself is important, but part of design is the font in which you choose to present yourself or the client at hand. And people instinctively judge content based on the font that it’s written in. There are entire websites devoted to hating particular fonts (Papyrus or Comic Sans, anyone?) and focus groups spend thousands and millions of dollars just to report to their clients that switching to Helvetica will boost the youth consumer base. Do a bit of reading up on just how much fonts can accomplish, and then tailor the content of the site being designed accordingly. It’s about more than simply layout or whether or not there are a ton of images, and choosing the right font is a designer coup.

Guest Author: This article was written by Mona Pennypacker of Acorn Creative Studio who specializes in web site design in Colorado.