1. Resolution Settings
Today, there are computers and notebooks with all kinds of resolutions settings. They range from 640 x 480 to 1280 x 1024 and go even higher.Which resolution to design? There is none! It’s impossible to design a website to look the same in every browser, platform and screen resolution, so don’t bother trying. Instead, use a fluid, tableless layout for your design, with % widths that expand and contract to fit a visitors browser setting. Consider – design for 1024×768 as it is currently the most widely used screen size. Use a liquid layout that stretches to the current user’s window size. Refer this Article by Mathew James Taylor.
2. Clean Layout
A clean layout that uses white spaces effectively enhances a websites look and feel and keeps a good impression with your site users. The world is moving away from table- based website interfaces to pure CSS websites because it reduces file size which enhances accessibility, re-usability and give greater control over the look of your website.
3. Neat and Easy Navigation
Another very important feature of any website is its Navigation or main Menu. If your users cannot understand your site navigation structure in 10 seconds, the chances are they will be pissed off and not come back to your site.
What is a good navigation? Navigation structure can be horizontal or vertical or both. That’s depends on your website requirement. You can also have dropdown/multi-level navigation structure if you have many links. A good navigation should be simple, clean, consistent and user-friendly which compliments your website’s look and feel. Keep it simple and accessible.
4. Browser-Compatibility
In order to reach out to wider audiences, your website should be browser compatible. The best practice which most professional designers follow is to design for the Modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox) first and then do the fixing for Internet Explorer (IE 5.5 +). Do not ignore Internet Explorer users as there will still be many people who are still sticking with IE 6 no matter what.
5. Usage of Images and Other Media Types
Try to minimize the usage of images, flash and other media into your design. This will affect the loading time of your web pages. Sometimes though, project requirements are such that one require to use media files. In that scenario, try and use the available best practices for your specific task. This will keep your bandwith usage in check.
6. Typography
Content is the most inportant aspect of your design so you should not take easy way out or compromise about that. Before you start the design process, create a stack of fonts that you would want to use. Do not use too many fonts. Always use web-safe fonts unless you are designing for a specific users. Using the right font with the right styling will enhance your design a great deal.
7. Scalability
As technology advances and configuration of computers & their monitors keep increasing and varying it is impossible to test your site in all screen sizes and platforms. Under these circumstances, another very important task is to make sure that your code and design is scalable and can be edited/modified/enhanced easily.

1. http://www.iconza.com/
collection of free icons that can be colored and reduced in size to your taste. If you are a happy site or blog owner, you will be able to pick icons that will fit right into your design. The project is done by Turbomilk, company that is also involved in producing icons, logos and interfaces for cash.
2. http://viewlike.us/
New FREE site that allows you to check out how your website looks in the most popular resolution formats. It’s all powered by Ajax & PHP so no need to download anything! To Get started just type your URL in the box above.
3. http://fivesecondtest.com/
Five second tests help you easily identify the most prominent elements of your user interfaces.
4. http://www.tynt.com/
Tracer gives you actionable insight into what content your users find most engaging. When your content is copied and pasted, Tracer automatically adds an attribution link back to your site.
5. http://www.myfontbook.com/
myFontbook is a free and easy way to browse your font collection. The font viewer allows you to easily review and catalog all of your installed fonts.
6. http://curdbee.com/
CurdBee is a safe and secure web-based billing application. You can use it to send clients invoices and
then collect payments via PayPal or Google Checkout, billing them easily in the currency you choose.
It’s so simple, you won’t believe it till you see it.
7. http://colorschemedesigner.com/
Color Scheme Designer generates color schemes of several types. Every scheme is based on one
(base) chosen color, which is supplemented with additional colors making together the best optical
impression.
8. http://www.typetester.org/
The Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. Its primary role is to
make web designer’s life easier. As the new fonts are bundled into operating systems.
9. http://www.go2convert.com/
This is online image converter website for free. It supports over 100 major image formats. You can convert files up to 5Mb in size. Converted files will be stored on our servers for 5-10 days. You will receive an links to converted images in download page.
10. http://browserlab.adobe.com/
An easier and faster solution for cross-browser testing. You can preview and test your web pages on
leading browser and operating systems. This will help you get your results in real time, from virtually any
computer connected to the internet.

Here is a simple and quick solution to fix this problem. Now your PNG images will render properly by IE 6.

Follow these two simple steps and you’re all set!

Step 1: Download the following files from here.

– blank.gif
- iepngfix.htc

Step 2: Add the below to your CSS Style sheet. Make sure you give the correct path url.

img{ behavior: url(”iepngfix.htc”) }

You’re all done! Test your page on IE6.