These tips may sound obvious, but it is easy and common to fall into the pit of poor discipline when it comes to user experience. These tips apply to the 2D and 3D space, both websites and software UI.

1. Look through the eyes of your user. One of the hardest things to do is to remove your bias from the UX experience. Just because you understand how to navigate your site or software, it certainly doesn't mean the end user will have the same experience. The best solution is to sit down a variety of users both targeted group and random to understand how they use your product. I know from experience that your users will find each tiny error or comment on poorly designed UI element. This is a good thing... let them find away and watch closely so you can smooth out the UX.

2. Follow a simple path. Many systems and UI have multiple doorways trying to direct users who have multiple and varied needs. Usually UI real-estate is parceled based upon demand ratios. This is a good thing, too. A common mistake is to have doorways with multiple subsequent path branches that are irrelevant to the original path. During an operational process let users complete their path in a simple manner.

3. Ensure you know the REASON. It is important to know who uses your software and where they come from, but the "why" they use your site or software is most important. Knowing the reason why people visit will greatly determine how you develop the UX. Of course this is driven by market demand and the company's position in the marketplace to service their needs.

4. Challenge your own desires. We all love our own creation, obviously not everyone will love our creation. If you are creating a platform for other peoples agenda to be expressed then you will only have to focus on functions and features that allow your target audience to use the platform, but if you are developing a culturally driven product, then you are in charge of more than just functions and features - you enter the realm of the desires of others. Either way it is a good idea to know where to place your own desires within the equation in order to provide either quality feature sets and flexibility for platforms or provide quick access to on-demand interactivity for culturally driven products.

5. Stick to the norm. No one wants to re-learn UI to accomplish a familiar goal or acquire ubiquitous content. Users enjoy a slick contemporary active interface (don't use flash - use jquery or ajax) or want a passive experience that leads then through. If users start off not understanding your UI, the fault lies with "You" as the UX designer for not putting the end-user's experience first.