Try coupling a drum machine hat with a real world hat. Gets really nice results.

Use 2 or 3 different hats and take a "less is more" approach

Hats should push the track along and give a bit of fizz, don't go overboard on your patterns.

You can make really simple effective hat patterns by just putting one on the offbeat, and playing around ever 16 bars or so, to keep variation. Keep the programming simple, but maybe adds some interesting effects or tonal changes.

Off beat hats give a shuffle feel, on beat hats give a driving quality, figure our which the track needs.

Try using a high pitch rim or tocky sound and incorporate it into your hat line, you can get interesting results using non hat sounds in your hat programming.