Provides comparison and understanding of looking at products in terms of what the products can do, versus what the user can do with the products.

Peter Merholz discusses sources of value to justify investment in design.

Presents philosophy that there are four classes of software:

• MeWare:  The developer creates software.  The developer uses it.  Nobody else does.
• ThemWare:  The developer creates software.  Other people use it.  The developer does not.
• UsWare:  The developer creates software.  Other people use it.  The developer uses it too.
• NobodyWare:  The developer creates software.  Nobody uses it.

Includes detailed real-world analysis of City Desk, a software package - applying the ideas 

Lists and explains seven guiding precepts of good interface design.

Amy Hillman and the Boxes & Arrows staff walk through how to approach, justify and manage the first UX project for your company

Daniel Read takes us through a personal, anecdotal story that discusses usability annoyances and their impacts.  Very well written, very good advice.

Good article in a Q&A format.

The Question: Are there any usability issues with using drag and drop controls in a web application?

The Answer: Good discussion - links to examples and other discussions

In the world of cognitive psychology, there’s something known as an affordance. Affordances are clues that communicate to a user how they should use an object.

For example, assuming you’re familiar with the convention, a type-in box communicates to the user that they should click within the box and start typing if they want to enter data.

Great introduction, overview, and explanation of personas by Tina Calabria of Step Two. This is a long article, and also includes a great 6-page pdf version for free download. Great introduction to the topic and how and why to create personas. Also suggests some uses for personas.