Anthony Franco is the president of EffectiveUI. His company designs and develops killer websites for customers like eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) and General Electric (NYSE: GE). He argues that it is a mistake to overload your products with extra features that only the most sophisticated customers care about.

"We are big believers in the 80-20 rule," said Franco. "Basically, you can't have everything in your initial design. If anything, you want to focus on several key features to showcase your company and try to appeal to a broad audience."

A big mistake, according to Franco, is to listen to your power users. Why? The reason is that they want too many features, and they are usually the most vocal about things.

Another recommendation: test your site. "Before going live, you need to get some beta users," said Franco. "It's important that you watch how they use the site. Is there confusion? What are they attracted to? I also think it's a good idea to have customers and prospective customers be a part of the initial test."

This type of testing was key for EffectiveUI's development of eBay's desktop application. "It was an iterative process. Actually, if things didn't work, eBay was willing to scrap it. That was critical to the success."

For entrepreneurs working on a new product, the emphasis should be on coming up with a simple, elegant design that works well.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.