Sometimes you just want to get the information you're after, save it and move along. And you can't. Usability nightmares — which are rather the daily routine than an exception — appear every now and again; usually almost every time you type your search keywords in Google. In his article "Why award-winning websites are so awful" Gerry McGovern points out that "the shiny surface wins awards, real substance wins customers" and that is absolutely true. Nevermind what design you have, and nevermind which functionality you have to offer — if your visitors don't understand how they can get from point A to point B they won't use your site. In almost every professional design (except from special design showcases such as, e.g., portfolios) you need to offer your visitors a clear, self-explanatory navigation, precise text-presentation, search functionality and visible and thought-out site structure. And that means that you simply have to folow the basic rules of usability and common sense. You want to communicate with your visitors, don't drive them away, right? In this article we take a look at some of the usability nightmares you should avoid designing functional and usable web-sites. At the end of the article you'll also find 8 usability check-points you should probably be aware of.