How to Spot Quality within Web Design: Examples & Tips (opens in new tab)

The subtle touches that indicate actual talent went into the design, not a programmer's afterthought, does make me appreciate web sites more.

I really have no idea what you're suggesting with "We've had enough of that over the last decade". This isn't all or nothing; you can have gorgeous design with worthwhile content and functionality.

Judge a copy editor by his spelling. Judge a writer by her phrasing. Judge a designer by his colored borders.

I was wondering why I would want to "Design using a gird system"

I disagree. Here are the 7 points:

1. Spacing

2. Pixel Perfect Detail

3. Well thought out Typography

4. Organization of Elements

5. Restraint and Subtlety

6. Using Color to its Full Potential

7. Doing something Nobody else has done

Considering the content of each of the points, I would argue that at worst only 2 and 7 focus on form over function. If you're a person that has a hard time telling if a design is good or not this is a great list.

Also, design must start somewhere. You cannot A/B test starting from a blank page.

in the end, visually appealing design tends to convert more users than plain-but-functional design.

Beautifully composed. Makes me want to go back and revamp most of my designs.

Beautifully composed. Makes me a little more graphically talented...

I found it amusing how awful the text (or should I say "the typography") for the introduction and table of contents from that site looks in Firefox on Linux (on my machine). I'm sure it is due to the site using fonts not availble in my installation, or something similar to that. Still, it was amusing. I'd be curious to hear if others had the same experience. In case anyone cares, I can't remember the last time I had the text on a web site look so bad with this setup. I visit a lot of sites, and I haven't had one look this bad for a long time. It is still readable, but if it was my site on web typography, I wouldn't want it to look that way.