This may not be what you want to hear, but have you considered partnering with a designer? Is there some reason that you feel you need to also cover this part o

This may not be what you want to hear, but have you considered partnering with a designer? Is there some reason that you feel you need to also cover this part of the project too? It's difficult enough to master and stay on top of all the technologies that have listed, and design is a huge topic which in and of itself could consume you. It's also in many ways quite tangental to your existing skillset. That said if you do insist on being the fully rounded person and doing all aspects of the project (which I often find myself doing :-) I would second the advice given here to simply borrow design elements from sites that you like (90% of 'design' is simply this anyway, with a relatively small number of people putting actual design principles to use and even even smaller number of thought leaders doing interesting and innovative design work). This should give you a start on getting something that looks somewhat decent, and give you time to think about how far down the design rabbit hole you wish to dive so that you will at least start to understand the underpinnings and theory of the things you had been cargo-culting. Design is not how something looks - it's how it works. Think like an end-user and step back from the myopic view most developers have of their own applications. Ask yourself questions like "Is it obvious what to do here? Does the UI help me achieve my goals or hinder it?" The actual visual representation is only one part of achieving these goals. Remove redundant, confusing or cluttered elements on screen. In good design every pixel pulls it's own weight and white-space is used judiciously. Perfection is achieved when nothing more can be removed. Pay attention to color schemes - there are plenty of sites now which will help you pick a nice color palette. Pick colors which work well together and are readable. Colors convey a message. Don't ignore typography either. Googling will give you good suggestions for fonts which work well together and carry certain types of messages and associations. Don't use too many fonts on page. Vertical rhythym and letter/line spacing can make a big difference to a sites appearance. Something I do before starting sites is to make a proof sheet - sample content of the basic types of tags, elements and markup you will encounter, and a CSS stylesheet defining the appearance of these elements. This may help you visualise the site a little better and will keep you consistent as you build it out.