One of the ways that the best known brands became popular is their design. Yes, of course, the quality of their product or information is important, but it's the design that immediately differentiates them from their competitors. That's not only human, it's just how things work in nature. It's why flowers have interesting colors and smells to attract attention from birds and bees. It's the most natural thing in the world.
Good design is as much about how something works as how it looks.
In web design, a good site design needs to be based on good site organization. How you're arranged and grouped your information. What you've named your sections. How your navigation works to help people get around the site and find what they're looking for. You can read more about this in Web Sense .