Web design tips

[Kruno]

I always have a bad habbit of Microsofting my websites (bloating them up badly). Is there a cure for it?

What tips are there in making a great, unbloated and nice to look at design?

[SurfMonkey]

Use style sheets.
Don't use a great number of background images but use colour to draw the to sections instead.
Keep the design clean and un-cluttered.
Oh, and make sure you're screen reader friendly if you want people with special requirements to be able to access your site.

[stncttr908]

Section off content. Instead of making a page about yourself that goes into your friends, cars, and computers, make a page for each. Also, simple designs are more effective in most cases. Sporadic use of images in the overall design make it look much more clean and professional, and improves load times tremendously.

[sytaylor]

As above, style sheets and limited useage of images make life very easy. Google search for a css guide, or pilfer some example css that you like and modify it to high heaven! :D