There is a tendency to cram too much crap on a page. No set of priorities. Editing needed. Makes it hard to tell at a glance what is actually news.
Crazy! No hierarchy, either.
Not sure if there’s a “right” number, but surely there is an upper limit.
Duh. Don’t care if it’s a file photo. Help me remember who / what you’re writing about.
Infographics are neat, too. Big picture sets the standard.
Sucks for performance. Not accessible for disabled users. Isn’t open like the web is.
Pretty small variation. Jan Jancourt 600pt.
Much better! lets me read shit at a glance.
We have ways to use better typefaces (sIFR, cufon, @font-face).
Don’t use too many typefaces! This doesn’t count Ads or the weight/italic variants
Not tiny little links. Big ones. Make sure your sections are logical and make sense. Stuff that makes sense as a newspaper section doesn’t necessarily on the web.
Space around “stuff”. Enhances readability. Is a symptom of being willing to edit. Has good ratios & margins.
White space! Heiarchy! Good Typefaces. Not too many of them. Not too many ads. Good use of color.
Nice use of type. Good scale. Good at a glance to see what’s new. Good use of color. Big navigation.
Big section links. Whitespace! Not cramming too much shit on the page. Type size variations are adequate.
4 files at a time. Slow.
2MB! Fuckin’ a. Even on a fast connection this sucks. Sucks to download, and that’s a lot of shit for the browser to have to sort out.
Grandma test. Does it slow the computer to a crawl. It’s a webpage. Not a video editor. Not a web app.
Good design tends to come from organiztations that have good priorities and are well organized. But there is opportunity to differientiate a site, at least locally.