Do you prefer to design your websites with simple designs, that aren't over complicated, or do you like to bog your design down with things such as flash, and other bells and whistles? I have always preferred to keep my sites fairly simple, but I do still think the designs should be eye catching to a degree.

As long as the design doesn't get in my way, I'm good. That means: no splashscreen, Flash or otherwise; no soundtrack; no "dancing baloney" (technical term); no more than two plugins needed to use the site for its primary purpose, and those should not be mandatory; no crowding/judicious use of whitespace; basic usability in place (readable font face, legible font size, sufficient contrast for ease of scannability, sufficient spacing, et cetera); and solid information architecture. Don't make me try to guess where to find things or how to navigate the site.

Other than that - designers, start your engines. Floral, simple lines, boxes, curves, curlicues, racing stripes, grunge, cartoonesque, trompe l'oeil, pixellated, whatever.

I need to agree here with Lesli, there are a ton of sites that are so over done its almost sick to think someone burned that much time for something that clogs up the site. When you have so much stuff going on (thinking the same as people with overdone tattoos) it just ends up taking less away from what the main point is.

For a website the main thing to look is functionality and not the design, even if its complicated if it is having more functions its good

I agree 100% that sites need to some what appealing.
However I am not to keen on sites that are to busy/text heavy.

This is just my opinion though.

I actually agree with most of the points that were made in this thread. There are too many websites that seem to go way overboard with the flash or other distractions, and I think it's actually likely to chase more people away, if they have trouble navigating through it all.

We're actually in the process of doing an overdue redesign based on a simple Wordpress theme.

(Before you go and look, it's not live yet).

It just depends on the subject of the site really. If it's meant to be a fun site like a site where you can play games, then sure the flash and whatnaught; but if the site is meant to beabusiness site, then I'd keep the flash and "fun stuff" off the site.

I prefer a clean design that is easy to navigate. I also look for proper grammar and spelling in the content of the website. A static site is good, too -- as in, no flash.

The cleaner the design the better the conversion ratio of the sales.. when a client is lost on your homepage its only a matter of seconds before he leaves the site

Design depends greatly on what it is that you are wanting to display on your site.

A blog site will be MUCH different than a CLAN or Gaming Site and these are very different from that of an Online Store or a website for a Radio or TV Station.

Many of the Radio and TV designs almost REQUIRE flash which I'm not a fan of, but that's what the client wants.

The bells and whistles, music and video all have a place in the web depending on the site. Band sites that I've done in the past WANT their music to be playing. I prefer a play button, but after doing A/B testing we found people were more prone to go to the purchase and demo page if the music was playing when they entered the site. Go figure!

My own site? Small, clean and fast. CSS is my friend.

Mostly, I have the same idea with you, but whatever you do, try not to hide your content. When customer visit your website, they can easily find whatever they want..

My personal opinion is that a website has to look professional and simple, functional at the same time..

Too much flash, too much text or too much image are always provide negative effect!!

First thing first is determining your target audience and finding a visual identity for the site to follow. Is this a new business or existing one? Grab some colors from the logo or previous marketing material and you can start from there. It's important to have some consistency in all your different media (web, print, etc). This will help strengthen your brand.

For web hosting sites as it is a technology category I like clean easy to understand navigation and WEB 2.0 "Style" of a large header area that is attractive and good use of white space and alignment. Attention to detail is very important to me and this comes down to placing pixels perfectly. It's a good way to sort out the lazy designers from the ones who really care about their craft.

An equally nice and clean footer with some repeated menu links and information to help increase SEO and contain the design of the page.

Keeping fonts to a maximum of 2-3 (Including your LOGO font) so this would be a Headline font + a body copy font. I don't like flash unless it's something that calls for it. Maybe a nice little area in the layout for some promos or other information but light on Animation and things flying everywhere. We all remember the time where web sites had the 7-UP guy dancing with his arms in the air? FAR AWAY from that.

Most important to me is making something unique about your site, away from the Template but not so alien that people get confused about where to go. Write how you talk and cater to the general public but also include all the geek talk available somewhere.

I suggest a Primary Graphic (Your logo) some type of other visual simulation (illustration, abstract shapes OR Photography) you could also do a little mix of photography and illustration. Whatever you do find and stick to your identity system. Secondary graphics such as small bullet points or headline graphic/underline other call outs that compliment your primary graphic go a long way in calling attention to your site and showing that you had a thought out plan and followed it.

A lot a great recommendations already. I actually prefer to see flash or some visual impact - but not splash pages. Content is KING, navigation is extremely important. Poor contrast sends me running.