I don't know... "Cool" is a nice compliment, but all else being equal, "I'll take 500" works for me, too.

That's still not the most important compliment, though. If I could choose only one, and if I couldn't use compound sentences, "I'm so happy I bought 500" just might be my favorite. :)

I'm going to have to go with the whole "Net Promoter" thing and say that the biggest compliment a company, product or service can receive is that you, the customer, wants to recommend that company, product or service to a friend or family member. When you do that, you're putting your reputation on the line with your friends and family and so you're careful what you recommend to them. And by doing that, well, it's a huge compliment.

You can't argue with cool. You can't even design cool, see Malcolm Gladwell's three rules about cool, http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_03_17_a_cool.htm.
When you design a web site, forget about cool - as Gwyn writes, what's the greatest complement depends. What we can learn from Apple's design successes is that good design is not stacking the product with features, but knowing what features to take away.

Cam, "I'll take 500!" is a much better way of saying "highly profitable."

Anders, Yes indeed: The primary goal of great design is to understand what to leave out.

Spike, Great answer. By asking Frederick Reichheld's classic question: "How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" you can determine quickly who is a promoter and who is a detractor — whether you're evaluating products or websites.

“While loyalty doesn’t guarantee growth,” Reichheld says,” in general profitable growth can’t be achieved without it.”

I like "great content" because it reflects substance in all its forms. There are certain things which we may find cool, but may not be so willing to share because of its uniqueness to our interests or its deviant nature.

I agree that "great content" is the highest compliment for a website. Highly profitable is a quality derived from great content. Content is where the "call to action" resides that makes a visitor want to take the next step, whether it is a purchase or a recommendation to a friend or family member.

My vote for the best website compliment is "I visit that site often." Great content is a key element, but so are easy navigation, clear focus, and ability to meet my needs easily and effectively.

Would it be sucking up to mention that I visit this blog almost every workday? *grin*

"Cool" is a compliment, but so is "Great content." I admit I'm partial to that one...

I also like "Must have," as in "I can't imagine my life without it because it makes me/my life ________." (Fill in the blank: easier, smarter, cooler, happier, etc.)

Here are some I like:
Cool!
Intuitive
Reliable
Life Changing

After riding a mountain bike with slicks for years, I finally bought a real road bicycle. It was life changing and cool!

I bought a Macbook Pro after years of using Windows and took to it immediately. The system was very intuitive to me and it just works *all* the time (reliable, I love that). And it is cool! Nothing against Windows, though, as that is still the standard out there and it works well.

Now, a simple example. I am way into outdoor activities and some years ago I bought some Tiva sandals and found this simple purchase to be life changing. You could walk through a stream or river. Cool!

You imply that it's different for ecommerce, so call this more reinforcement than disagreement. For our ecommerce sites I like conversion rate, as in orders per visitor, or the more enticing sales per visitor, as the best compliment. Tim.

It would seem that "cool" can mean so many different things to different people. (i.e. If I'm working on e-commerce sites, and my conversion rate is very high: cool. If I'm a designer and my site gets posted on a bunch of award websites: cool. If I'm a writer and people come back for my content: cool).

So in my opinion, "cool" pretty much covers it! ;)

"Cool" is a fun compliment, but I agree, the "I'll take 500," works better for me!

I think the highest compliment a product can receive is to have the trademark name become a generic term for the product or what the product does - Kleenex and Google come to mind. In other words, these products are so "cool" we use their name in reference to other brands.

I agree that it depends on the site. If I'm looking at an interactive agency's site, I expect to be WOW'd.

If I'm looking for a product or service, I want to see a professinoal presentation with well-written content in a site that's easy to navigate.

As much as it's great to receive Web design awards, I don't think it's a viable metric. If the site brings in leads and customers, that's more important. The award is icing.

I think we are talking about two different things in this thread:

1. Compliment from the customer's point of view (cool!)

2. Compliment from the company's point of view (sales, conversions, "I'll take 500")

I think the spirit of this post was 1 though I could be wrong.

Neil,

Very astute of you to point out the distinction. Yes, the spirit of the post was what makes a great website from a customer's point of view. But I love how this thread is branching in both directions.

It's also interesting to see how the comments sway back and forth between products and websites. Clearly, there are many similarities between great product design and great Web design.

As Peter Merholz pointed out, if you "design from the outside in," focusing on creating a superb user experience — whether you're designing a product or a website — you're more likely to receive the ultimate compliment...

Whatever you believe that is.

You know, good point, I had been talking about products and you had asked about websites. It is interesting the multiple directions this thread has taken.

The highest compliment is not something I'd hope to hear directly, but it's actually one buyer to someone that hasn't gotten one yet: "You gotta have this!" For a Website, it's "You gotta take a look at this - I go there everyday!"

Turning a customer into an evangelist for your product is the highest compliement. I say "Cool" "Wow" and "Awesome" for stuff I'll never buy, or in the case of a Website - go back to again.

Often, designing an effective website, that makes a topic "clear" to my target audience, appeals to the "cool" factor, and ultimately, generates some sort of "conversion" can be tremendously challenging, depending on the product or service.

But if I were to break it down to what I consider high praise, it would likely go along the lines of "Hey, Thanks. I 'understand' what you are saying."

If the visitor understands the message, it means they can choose to buy or not to buy according to their personal situation, rather than because I've been unclear.

Of course, "Cool" is cool too.