> Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable.

Is that right? Personally I feel like the opposite is true; I'll take an ugly looking but very usable UI over one that has all the bells and whistles but is actually a nightmare to use. Surely when the UI is bad and the UX is also bad the effect is compounded, and first time users might very well perceive the combination of bad UI/good UX as much worse than good UI/bad UX, but I really don't think this should be given out as good advice.