Yes - that sort of thing would be useful. To some extent this is the sort of thing bootstrap like frameworks are giving people. A default visual design that, well, doesn't suck ;-)
A few other things that I suggest to folk who don't have design skills in-house:
* Pick a single font face and 3 sizes and use throughout
* Pick a palette of five colours (use kuler or something) and use throughout
* Go mobile-first (not because of the 'mobile' - but because of the constraints - it forces a focus on core features & usability)
The problem is that there's a fine line between giving people some rough rules of thumb to help them - and people then taking this sort of advice and seeing it as "best practice" and applying it inappropriately.
A few other things that I suggest to folk who don't have design skills in-house:
* Pick a single font face and 3 sizes and use throughout
* Pick a palette of five colours (use kuler or something) and use throughout
* Go mobile-first (not because of the 'mobile' - but because of the constraints - it forces a focus on core features & usability)
The problem is that there's a fine line between giving people some rough rules of thumb to help them - and people then taking this sort of advice and seeing it as "best practice" and applying it inappropriately.