In the attention economy, anyone trying to connect with an audience must treat the user's time as the ultimate resource.

Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

The usability tests we have conducted during the last year have shown an increasing reluctance among users to accept innovations in Web design. The prevailing attitude is to request designs that are similar to everything else people see on the Web.

On average, when you ask someone to perform a task on a site, they cannot do it. It's not their fault; it's the designer's fault.

The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Developing fewer features allows you to conserve development resources and spend more time refining those features that users really need. Fewer features mean fewer things to confuse users, less risk of user errors, less description and documentation, and therefore simpler Help content. Removing any one feature automatically increases the usability of the remaining ones.

...pay attention to what users do, not what they say.