Within the design community, I think we can agree that learning web design is no easy task. There is a great amount of frustration in getting things to look as awesome as they did in a Photoshop mockup or in ALL Flash leading to an eventual surrender in Dreamweaver to a medoicre boxy design comprised of a header, footer, side navigation, and content. Needless to say, this gets old fast and students get discouraged that their site doesn’t look anything like the sites that they frequent. To get over the hump and design a great looking site, I suggest looking at really amazing sites and analyze their DESIGN (check out these Webby winners). Technical execution aside, they all have a few things in common that web designers of any level can realistically achieve. Here are five things to examine:
1. Navigation
It certainly doesn’t have to be lined up on top or stacked on the left side. What are some other interesting ways that the navigation can be positioned?
http://www.stemcellfoundation.ca/
2. Typography
Good design has beautiful type treatment. Spend a good deal of time really learning the ins and outs of how to control typography with simple CSS that agrees with the look and feel of the site. Look at the spacing, line length, size, and placement of the type on exceptional sites.
http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
3. High-Quality Images
Plain and simple, low quality images and/or stretched images completely ruin the integrity of a website. Take care in making interesting, appropriate image selections of top quality.
http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html
4. Colors
Color selection is not about what your favorite color is. They should always be inspired by your content and image choices. Limit your color selection on each page so that you do not overwhelm, and always tie the site together as a cohesive whole. Make sure type always has enough contrast as to not burn any retinas of your users 
http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/historyofflight/
5. Integration
With the above tips in mind, you’re off to a good start. It’s easy to get carried away with squares (tables, divs, photos, banners, etc), but do not let that dictate your design. Colors, images, type, and graphics should all integrate seamlessly into each other. Images do not have to be squares…they can be organic shapes or masked. Integration is what will make your site an experience.
Of course you will not become a Webby award winner over night, but you CAN apply these tips in their purest design form. Keep it thoughtful, simple, and seamless. The fancy coding skills can come later 
