The cut-don't-add design pass

The cut-don't-add design pass
"Add visual interest so the page isn't boring." [BUSTED] It spread because designers fear blank space looks unfinished. The truth: ornament competes with the message for the same scarce attention, and the message loses. Do a subtraction pass:
— Screenshot the page, blur it. The elements that still pull your eye are your real hierarchy. Is the CTA one of them?
— Remove every decorative element that doesn't carry information: gradients, icons-as-garnish, stock illustrations.
— Count fonts and weights. More than two families is usually noise.
— Re-test the blur. The eye should now land on headline, proof, and action, in that order.
The nuance: whitespace isn't emptiness, it's emphasis. You're not making it plain, you're making the one thing that matters impossible to miss.