[matteodepalo]

I believe the biggest issue we developers face is that we cannot wrap our heads around what makes good design good. We look at a web page and think "wow this is beautiful and clean", but when we have to create our own, our mind blanks out. What we fail to see is that design is made out of patterns, just like programming. The problem is we cannot name those patterns.

I strongly recommend the reading of The Non Designer's Design Book[1]. It does a good job of explaining the basic principles of design (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity) and constitutes a good start for those like me who have no prior formal education in design and want to learn how dissect a web page in its parts.

[1]http://books.google.it/books/about/The_Non_Designer_s_Design...