Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.

Your objective should always be to eliminate instructions entirely by making everything self-explanatory, or as close to it as possible. When instructions are absolutely necessary, cut them back to a bare minimum.

Designers love subtle cues, because subtlety is one of the traits of sophisticated design. But Web users aregenerally in such a hurry that they routinely miss subtle cues.

In reality, though, most of the time we don’t choose the best option—we choose the first reasonable option, a strategy known as satisficing.

As a rule, conventions only become conventions if they work.

The more you watch users carefully and listen to them articulate their intentions, motivations, and thought processes, the more you realize that their individual reactions to Web pages are based on so many variables that attempts to describe users in terms of one-dimensional likes and dislikes are futile and counter-productive. Good design, on the other hand, takes this complexity into account.

If you want a great site, you’ve got to test. After you’ve worked on a site for even a few weeks, you can’t see it freshly anymore. You know too much. The only way to find out if it really works is to test it.

It doesn’t matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice.

Don't make me think