People have become accustomed to choice. In enterprise and consumer software, choice usually means “what product level or feature set do I want” and it is typically tied to price.

Use the vocabulary of your users, not the vocabulary of your own abstract creations. Even though your software is flexible and is therefore capable of supporting many different opinions, you must pick the one way you think is best for your customers and then defend the hell out of it.

Make sure you spend sufficient time creating your sample data. Even the most useful application doesn’t seem that way when it’s empty, and even the most imaginative user is not going to envision your application in its most flattering light.

• Fix This: Use the Most Natural Sort
• Stroke of Genius: Make Use of Your Medium
• Art of the Link: Increase Sales
• Art of the Link: 10 UI Techniques
• Art of the Link: End with a High Note
• Stroke of Genius: Mapping Innovation