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Good web design incorporates these basic concepts:

Plan well first !
Remember the saying "those that fail to plan, plan to fail".
Before actual construction of any site, their should be comprehensive research into what the site will be about, what will be the desired outcome of a person visiting the website and what is the desired outcome. Also how the website will look and what the target audience will be.

Make a comprehensive planning document
A good planning document will list primary keywords, navigational structure, basic content, and really organize the design process. Research your keywords using the Overture keyword tool, and determine related keywords you might have missed. Organize this list of keywords, in a logical fashion, for real "Users".

Make it easy to view and read
You should use a typeface which is easy on the eyes. There are actually typefaces designed for computer viewing, Arial and Verdana. Use them. They are default on all computers and browsers, so you know that the visitor will have them available. Utilise Cascading Stylesheets or similar to make sure that you incorporate your chosen typeface consistently throughout your site. Make sure to use a readable text color and background, like black text on whiteor light coloured background.

Make it easy to navigate
Develop a logical navigational scheme. Your home page is the top level page. Under that are second level pages, based upon less popular searches, with the high volume searches at the top of the list. Third level pages will be least searched of the second level pages. Sort of like a "theme pyramid". Make sure your scheme is intuitive, and easy to understand. For more information on "theme pyramids" visit WebmasterWorld

Make it easy for "Users" to find what they want
People come to your site trying to find answers to their questions, or information on a subject they are interested in, or to buy something they want. They will only spend a few seconds trying to make sense of your site. Make it easy for them. Make it obvious what your site is about, and where and how they go to find the information they want. For more information view our Useability Design Guide.

Use consistent layout and design elements
What type of audience do you have? Are they more visual, like artists, or more informational, like engineers. You must present most of the content in your site with text, but your audience should dictate how many graphic elements to include in your layout, within limits. You should balance your graphic elements with large doses of text elements, to avoid unwieldy page size. Remember, the faster loading sites tend to do much better on Search Engines.

Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), to ensure consistent display of text accross different browsers, and speed up page loading times.

Make Pictures & Graphics quick loading
Remember to process all graphic images, using compression, to reduce file size. This can have a huge effect on a page's load times.

Make quick loading pages with minimal coding errors
Many "Users" still have access only via a Dial-Up Modem, not Broadband - and even that can go slow. When pages load slowly, "Users" and search engine crawlers both leave. Get rid of huge graphic image files and bloated html code. Compress images, use CSS, and validate all your pages before you go public with your site. Test your index page first, then use that as a template for the rest of your site. You can test page load times here, and check for W3C compliance here. Work on both until you have page load times under 8 seconds on a 56K modem, and error free coding. HTML coding help here.

For more information, visit the website of Steve Krug who wrote the excellent book "Don't Make Me Think".