Graf,
Thanks so much for this post. Being a newbie to web design I found it very informative. We were already applying some of the suggestions, however it was great to have validation of what we're currently trying on our site.

We have also found that recruiting a few people from our target audience to view pages that we're designing for feedback before we go "live" to be very helpful. Sometimes the questions they ask or comments they make are invaluable. Working so closely with products everyday, we tend to think some things are obvious when they aren't to an outsider.