The Web is unique.
Do something online that is difficult or impossible to do in any other medium.

Do few things. Do them well.
Focus the lion's share of your online efforts on the few things your customers must do in order to successfully and easily do business with you.

Online is not ancillary.
You should inherently value the Internet as a key part of your business strategy.

It's not all about you.
When planning a website or Intranet, the last thing you should do is to mirror your company's internal structure or organization chart.

The nature of the beast.
The Internet is fundamentally a grassroots phenomenon.

Listen and Learn.
Real people visit your website. Pay attention to them. Listen to them. Get to know them.

People, not statistics.
Your customers are not users, targets, or demographics. They are real people. Treat them that way.

Web surfing is a myth.
People don't meander around the Web. They are online to do things. They have tangible goals.

Control.
Online, you are not in control, your customer is. Get used to it.

People are fickle online.
If you don't provide exactly what your online customer needs, it is exceedingly easy for them to abandon your site for your competitor's site.

Don't patronize.
The last thing your customers want to do is read your boilerplate marketing lingo or your lofty mission statement.

An honest question.
If so many firms talk about usability and users, why do the vast majority of sites fail in this regard?

Usefulness.
If the Betamax VCR were more user friendly, would you buy it? It's not enough for a thing to be easy to use. It must actually be useful. The same thing is true for your website, Intranet, or Web application.

Simplicity is the best policy.
Visual design is best if it is simple. The design that is relevant and appropriate is the design that works.

Content really is king.
People don't visit your website or use your Web application for the fancy graphics, navigation or layout. They are singularly interested in your content or functionality.

A question of brand.
Websites are things we experience. If ad agencies describe brands as "experiences", why are sites designed by most ad agencies so gosh darn awful?

Be accessible.
Be nice to people. Provide a way for those with disabilities to interact with your site. Not everyone experiences the Web in the same way.