So, usability professionals criticize them to death and they are often ignored . Further, you must do specific research because there are so few generalized rules. Now, I know many usability folks are getting hot with me about this. They'll claim that we know all kinds of things about human perception , and they'll talk about Nielsen's heuristics , and Spool's research . Sorry folks, but that ain't enough.
Any good developer can eat that stuff up in a few days.
Spell out high order laws, and let's start working on the details. If not, hang it up. Usability folks are often on the outside of projects. They are called in as hired guns and they are often late to the show. Usability only holds the weakest part of the corporate mindshare.