Scot and Stefan gave me the following answers about Web site design 1. Good design is anything that effectively communicates a message through visual means, and good web design would applies that theory to online communication. If it meets these requirements through the restrictions the web places on visual communication, then it can be considered good web design. The easier question to answer is what is bad web design. Bad web design is design that does not communicate the message OR does so without communicating to the appropriate audience.
People generally buy people in that most people find it easy to connect with pictures of people.
The obvious answer would be that it would benefit a company to use the human form in their design if they sell a human-oriented product or service, such as leather jackets, though there are times when that is not always the case. It is also a matter of budget or photo availability. It really depends on the focus and audience. One thing the web tends to do is disassociate the user from actual human interaction, such as a buying from a person in a store or talking to a real person over the phone. If the focus of the company is a connection with the buyer on some sort of personal level, it might benefit the company to include human form within their design, to attempt to put human warmth to a traditionally cold medium.