I am sick of usability consultants telling us to ignore design over functionality.  Gerry McGovern on his Giraffe forum makes a ludicrous statement that the best websites are useful and ugly!

i believe that both design and function are key.  You need a balance of both, depending on your strategy.

If a site works the way we expect and is also enjoyable to use then we may well tell our friends and return for more.  If however, it is just useful and boring we’ll just use it and keep our mouths shut.  The moment something comes along that is aesthetically pleasing, we’ll be there in a minute.

The usability industry needs to recognise that just making something work is not going to cut it anymore, everyone simply catches up.  We need to strive for something that is a step above the rest. It needs to be functional, useful, ‘branded’ and a joy to use. That’s Real Usability.