My (non-religious but you should live them religiously) 10 Commandments

Whether we like it or not, presentation is almost as important as your data, conclusions or recommendations. Users will decide the worthiness of your work immediately based on their first impression and they will continue to judge as they go. In that spirit, let me present my ten commandments of design.

1. Design for your end users, not for you or your data specialists.
2. Ask your client questions and don’t believe the answers until they've confirmed them in different ways.
3. Use colors to highlight, not entertain.
4. Beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes straight to the bone. Avoid making your work ugly. 
5. Remember that pie charts kill kittens.
6. Mobile apps must be finger friendly.
7. Use white space instead of lines when appropriate.
8. Understand if you’re creating a dashboard or reporting tool – they ain't the same, but you can combine them.
9. Test it, then test it again. 
10. Simplify.