Design

While there are certainly basic principles that are vital to good design (alignment, repetition, proximity, and contrast), the best web pages usually end up having a little bit of flair. Unorganized creativity can actually take away from a site - obviously, you can have the world's most creative site, but if it's not cohesive in any way then it becomes useless.

To be creative in design, the aspects of the site that will make it original and visually appeasing must come in addition to solid fundamentals. A flash design or a bright and bold header can't replace easy navigation, but they should work together. By the same token, extremely basic use of those four principles won't catch anybody's eye.

The key is finding a middle ground, where viewers can know what to expect but at the same time remain interested.
For example: A site like USAToday.com works well because it adheres to those principles, but does each in a creative way.
All of the columns are aligned, but they vary in size and flow nicely together. The repetition of colors corresponding to a particular section of the online newspaper allows the reader to recognize the topic of a story. Proximity and contrast are effective all over the site, in terms of size, color, and other aspects.