Simian design links to Chris Heilmann's article I am User, hear me roar!. A nice collection of web-design insight from a user's perspective.

I visited a website and they resized the browser window. I thought, "did they really do that?" and proceeded to re-adjust back to my favorite size. Clicked to go to another part of the site and they did it again. I'm gone, who cares what they are selling?

It's easy to get lost in the beauty (or "rightness") of a design. I do it all of the time. Nobody cares what's going on behind the scenes. As much as you'd like to take each user aside and explain things, all you have is the few moments when they walk in "the door."

From my experience writing code and manning user feedback at Mapblast:

• Nobody cares how hard it was to make
• If someone takes the time to call you an idiot, it means they care: you should listen to what they say, no matter how badly/rudely they say it
• If most people report the same problem do not put in help text or javascript to make them do it right: rethink, redesign
• The design isn't done until a few million users have beat the crap out of it
• You should be able to look at log files and user feedback and understand everything
• Be prompt and courteous answering feedback
• Don't take it personal

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