UX rule of thumb #2: Keep it functional.

This UX rule of thumb is related to the first one, in that it is the same as saying that nearly everything on our view should have a function. The days of having a million bells and other objects on the screen that are nothing but eye candy are over. Do you remember the way websites looked in the late 1990s? Flash was all the rage. Web pages looked like snow globes, or had large animated buttons that pulsated, and read Click Here Now. These are no longer tolerated. Chances are excellent that if you have any such things on your web page, your visitor is going to leave your website as fast as they possibly can. If there is something on the screen, it had better have a purpose.

If you'd like to see an extreme example of a website that pays attention to the first and second (and the upcoming third) UX design principals, just take a look at Google's home page, at: https://www.google.com/.