Optimal Minimalist Website Layout

I like to think that I'm pretty good at creating an aesthetically pleasing user interface. I don't think I'm ask good at the functional aspect for users.

Where should account management buttons be? What should user navigation options look like? Should every page contain header or sidebar navigation? I'm not as good at answering those questions, but I'll at least pass on what I know. Sorry if what I mention below seems pretty obvious. Again, not very good at this part; just passing on anything that might be useful. Below are steps that try to outline a process to making a functional page layouts.

1. Start with what you think makes sense. Below are some general tips in getting started.
2. Try to make navigation options clear, and try to make spaces in the website that you'll think users will spend the most time easily accessible.
3. Try to avoid pages that lead down a rabbit hole; where users click into a series of pages, and then have to click back out a series of pages.
4. It might be a good idea to give pages the same name everywhere. Two buttons that lead to the same page shouldn't contain different text; unless there is logical reasoning as to why it is necessary.
5. Overall, keep in mind that something that seems perfectly clear to you may not seem so clear to users who are yet to learn about your website.
6. If possible, do a review with anyone willing to do one. I would give the reviewer just some context about your website; as if they are someone interested in using your website, but this is their first time using it. Other than the feedback that they naturally come up with as they experience their website, you might want to ask if they new how to get started from the start, if they were able to easily figure out how to use your website to its intended purpose, and if, once they got used to things, felt like anything was annoying to navigate to.
7. Next logical thing is to implement the feedback you got. This doesn't mean to do every single thing that everyone said. If you're hearing a consistent theme of particular feedback, then that's probably something you want to implement. Other than that, any one individual piece of feedback is really just your choice if you want to implement it or not. While trying to implement feedback, it's important to still be on your toes about the changes you're making. Test run the results yourself to make sure you didn't introduce any new problems.
8. See if you can do a final review with the same reviewers from before and some new ones. The important thing is to see how they react to the new changes. Hopefully at this point, you're hearing feedback something along the lines of, "yeah that's a lot better now"; with minimal new feedback on improvements in other areas.

Again, I'm really sorry if the advice sounds super basic. Very sorry if that read was a waste of time, but just hope it helped in some way.