i use the web a reasonable amount and when i come across something that has worked well for me when i use it, i often incorporate it or a similar idea into my own work. We are a small charity so we can’t spend loads on R+D so i look at what the big successful people are doing as they have spent a lot of money getting there.
Of course that is not always the best as for example if i designed my site to look like facebook it would probably fail pretty quick as facebook is pretty ugly and not the most user friendly site i’ve ever come across, the weight of users makes facebook succeed to my mind, over what it actually looks like. And perhaps the design elements aren’t the most important factor to a site like facebook.
I’ve recently started using ‘peek’ user testing which uses real users to test your site and you can hear their answers whilst you watch their mouse on the page. Can be useful to see what people actually do rather than what you think or hope they do.