Clear content, simple navigation and answers to customer questions have the biggest impact on business value. Advanced technology matters much less.

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

The best Web sites are better than Reality.

On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here?

Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.

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.

Three Tips: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.