Web Design That Sucks

1) This article is another great example of understanding the most fundamental thing about all design, making it work for the user. This article once again does a great job of illustrating the difference between what is good for the creator and what is good for the user, an especially good and blatantly example of this is point #7 where Flanders shows one token bad website, and a "revised version."

2)I have to agree with Flanders, Heroin Content is the thing that matters, period, everything else is just details. That being said, the details are certainly important, and they all distill nicely to one simple idea, make the user's experience obvious, anticipate what they want to do, and then make it easy for them to do it.

3)1. Give people a reason to come to your site, more than just simply because Google spit it out as a search result.

2. Give people a reason to come back, independent ip addresses are good, but they don't end up meaning much if you only see them once.

3. Label things, if it does something, we should be able to tell what it does without clicking it.

4. Put things in the order that visitors want them in, usability trumps visual palatability.

5. Contrast, because it is too easy to fix to screw up, and because people do it anyway.