Great article in Advertising Age last week, in case you missed it. Google's Web Analytics guru Avinash Kaushik asserts that one of the reasons why so many websites "suck" today is because of the hippo -- as in the "highest paid person's opinion."

I've worked with a lot of Hippos in my lifetime, and this really cracked me up. It's also very true... Sadly, Kaushik asserts that the individuals making choice decisions about what works best for customers on the web are often those the least connected to those customers. This ties to a bunch of stuff we've been saying on this site for a very long time.

Also - decent article from Mark Hurst in his May 20th Good Experience on the top mistakes companies are making in usability testing. I've included the link to the online article here - there's some good reader discussion there.