Originally posted here by proactive
Check out Jakob Nielsens site http://www.useit.com for hints on usable web designs. He's considered to be one of the greats when it comes to designing usable pages. His rules are very strict, and he don't allow for much fun. But but you'll get fast, easy to use pages.
Jakob does has some very good ideas, however I think he goes a bit OTT sometimes and is very contraversial, especially when he talks about making money on the internet (particulary advertising). His basic principles should be applied to every site on the net (short downloads, easy to use pages, proper navigation etc.) but if everyone followed his rules to the letter the web would be very boring indeed.