This is a page of mods I think will improve your game and make it better. I will provide a link to the downloaded site, video if possible and small description from me or the author of the mod these mods are in no particular order of greatness I think they all help bring a better experience for the user.

Install Nexus Mod Manager

The Nexus mod manager is a great tool that allows you to manage all of the mods in the Bethesda games. It grants queued downloads of many mods simultaneously and tells you when they have updates this is not essential but very handy in my opinion.

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/content/modmanager/

1. SkyUI 

Mod that aims to improve Skyrim’s User Interface by making it easier to use with mouse and keyboard, less wasteful of available screen space and nicer to look at.Further general objectives and design concepts are:

• Finding a good balance between ‘dumbed down’ and ‘information overkill’.
• Easy installation and setup by providing a user-friendly installer with the Nexus Mod Manager.
• Great customization support by using a separate configuration file.
• Blending features in as good as possible – players shouldn’t feel reminded that they’re using a mod.

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863

Skyui

2. A Quality world map with roads

This mod aims to give you a World Map that is fun to look at. It now has better textures and introduces detailed roads. I tried my best to draw out every single road, but if I missed one, please let me know! 😀 (I’m pretty sure I got them all.) Also, roads are pretty accurate. I walked along every one as I drew them. :p

A Quality World Map

 
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4929

 
3. RWT Realistic Water Textures

• Oceans, lakes, rivers, marshes, and creeks each with a unique ebb and flow.
• Waterfalls, foam, blacksmith’s trough, rain and waterdrop ripples replaced with high resolution textures.
• Manually adjusted water in the worldspace.
• Increased object, land, tree, sky reflectivity and image refraction in most bodies of water.
• Murkier underwater view for oceans and lakes. Crystal clear underwater is also available.
• Reduced visibility of object splashing in water

Ultra = 4X original resolutions, uncompressed water surface textures, 4X original resolutions everything else. Almost no compression artifacts.
High = 2X original resolutions, uncompressed water surface textures, 4X original resolutions everything else. Slight compression artifacts.
Medium = 1X original resolutions, uncompressed water surface textures, 2X original resolutions everything else. Some compression artifacts.
Waterfall foam textures are only 2X original resolutions for both versions.

RWT Realistic Water Textures

 
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=711

 
4. Skyrim HD – 2K Textures

Skyrim HD is a project for texture enhancement in Skyrim. (WIP)
The achived texture resolution is 4-8x (2-8k) bigger than the original ones.
All the textures are made from scratch.

Skyrim HD – 2K Textures

 
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=607

 
5. Improved NPC Clothing – High Res
This improves the clothing textures of NPC and make them look good with a higher resolution

Improved NPC Clothing – High Res

 
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2674

 
6. Skyrim Flora Overhaul

Skyrim Flora Overhaul is a WIP mod project dedicated to overhauling the Skyrim flora with more detailed textures and eventually new higher poly tree models and more variety of trees.== Current features ==
More color variations for the trees. Aspen has 4 different colors, pines has 4 different bark textures and 3 different branch colors.
Whiterun tree (both live and dead version, new bark and branches)
Groundcover – grasses, ferns and plants retextures. More will be added!
Shrubs – new textures for the most common shrubs.
Snowy pines, both fully snow covered and half covered versions.
Potato Plant.

Vurt’s Skyrim Flora Overhaul

 
 
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=141

 
7. Enhanced Night Skyrim

Replaces the star and galaxy textures with high-resolution night sky alternatives.
Choose between four varieties of nebula (colorful, icy blue, aquamarine, or green) and four levels of starfield density.
Use as a combination, or just the star or galaxy replacement on their own if that’s your preference!

Enhanced Night Sky

 
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=85

 
8. No More Block Faces

This mod gets rid of the blocky faces, caused by compression artifacts on the normal maps.
These normal maps have been smoothed and saved using a lossless format.

It affects all characters of the following races:

Imperial
Nord
Breton
Redguard
Dark Elf
High Elf
Wood Elf
Orc

 
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30

 
9. Realistic Lighting Without Post-Processing

Makes the lighting more realistic without the use of screen shader injections or other post-processing. This means there will be no performance decrease at all, and all weather and locations have unique light settings!

Skyrim + Realistic Lighting Without Post-Processing

 
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4323

 
10. Tytanis – The Ultimate Mod – Crafts – Spells – Items – MORE

From crafting to spells and houses, Tytanis will have everything. It will be updated very frequently, so be sure to check the nexus site daily. There are positions for modellers and texture artists to assist in the creation of the mod. To request to help, PM Tytanis with a link to some of your meshes/textures for examination. Best to take read of this one very interesting stuff also a lot of changes so make backups!

Tytanis: Ultimate Mod