SlyGuy - 6:27 pm on Dec 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

Dr Nielsen said the success of sites such as Google, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo showed that close attention to design and user needs was important.

Okay.......

Download times rule the Web ... Web pages can be no more than 3 KB if they are to download in one second which is the required response time for hypertext navigation. Users do not keep their attention on the page if downloading exceeds 10 seconds ... Keeping below these size limits rules out most graphics.

So, I quickly checked download times (using an online tool) for Amazon, eBay and Yahoo..

Amazon:
28.8k - 97.45 seconds
56k - 50.12 seconds

eBay:
28.8k - 93.55 seconds
56k - 48.30 seconds

Yahoo:
28.8k - 19.68 seconds
56k - 10.12 seconds

Do webmasters/surfers mature to design/prefer 'ugly' sites?

Maybe not 'ugly', but I've certainly matured to appreciate usability and simplicity more.