http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2009/06/01/presentation-revealing-design-treasures-from-the-amazon/

This is an excellent presentation about how amazon designs their website. You need about 60 minutes to go thru the whole thing but I suggest you give it a try nonetheless.

This is not about “design” in the sense of which font to use or “design” in the sense of how many tiers in my web stack but “design” in the sense of what are the most important principles you need to follow.

Good reading for anybody building a website (consumer or otherwise) or almost any software or community.