Designing Web Usability

by Jakob Nielsen

Deals with content and page design, designing for ease of navigation and users with disabilities. This book presents a series of principles which show: that web users want to find what they're after... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156205810X
• ISBN13: 9781562058104
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.7" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

An Intelligent Introduction to Web Usability

Nielson's book offers a straightforward and intelligent presentation of web design with a keen awareness of the big picture and what actually happens when users visit a web site. All times the practice of simplicity and ease of use are emphasized in page design, navigation, content and overall web site development.The book is heavy (literally!) with high quality color printing featuring hundreds of web sites to illustrate each of the points discussed. This could be regarded as a serious textbook that takes a deeper cut into the art and science of effective web site design than the more amusing (and also valuable) reads such as "Web Pages that Suck."Nielson addresses such issues as users with disabilities, the global nature of the web and the implications of multilingual sites, the use of metaphors, and the numerous other issues including download times, URL design, graphics, streaming video vs. downloadable video, site structure, color and text design, and so on. The book really "gets into it" and does not shy away from the nitty, gritty details, using its large quantity of illustrations to fully address each point. While it comes across as heavy handed on some occasions ("Do it this way") where an experienced web designer may see alternatives, this detail provides a great introduction for those new to web design.This one text effectively captures the most significant topics associated with designing effective web sites that will accomplish the task at hand. Reading it will put the overly zealous gif animators and latest plug-in proponents in touch with the world of the average user. Given some of the hideous web sites I've seen even from Fortune 500 companies with large web development budgets, Nielson's book is a voice of reason and intelligence in an area where hype and flash can cause people to lose sight of their objectives.

Required reading

Anyone who wants to design more than 5 web pages should be required to outline the major points in Jakob Nielsen's Designing Web Usability. Anyone who is hiring someone to design a web site should read this book first. Anyone who uses the internet as a regular source of information will tend to scream "YES" when Nielsen points out examples of bad web design.Jakob Nielsen's book describes a way of thinking about the World Wide Web. It is not a how-to book tied to a particular software package. He simply wants the internet to be a useful place where communication takes place. He talks about what a web page should be like rather than focusing on the HTML required to create it. He illustrates his ideas with many examples of sites that work and ones that don't. As a result, it is one of those rare computer books that will still be useful 5 years from now. Much of the information in the book seems obvious. After all, isn't communication the goal of a web page? Yet I would guess that after reading a chapter of Nilsen's book, you could identify significant design problems in the majority of web sites. Read all of the chapters and you'll begin to understand what it takes to create powerful web sites.Dale Fast fast@sxu.edu

Function + appearance = e-commerce success

As a programmer, I have a difficult time recognizing any limitations on what web functionality that I can code. However, I will push people aside to be the first in line to admit my inherent weaknesses in making it esthetically correct. According to some sources, that is a common problem in web design. This book is not about the coding, but is an extensive treatment of how to improve the user experience. In that sense, all web developers should read it. Web users have a level of impatience that will put a cranky two year old child in second place. Even what may appear to be relatively minor adjustments can and does lead to a higher rate of users returning to the site, which is the true currency of success in the e-commerce environment. The author uses an extensive number of figures to explain the rights and wrongs of page design. While some of the problems would require an extensive reworking of the site design, many are near the area of tweaks that could be done rather quickly. Generally, in the area of aesthetics, there is a great deal of room for interpretation, but it is hard to argue with the points that the author makes. If there is a negative side to what is done, it is that many points are repeated. A judicious elimination of 20-40 pages would not have sacrificed a great deal of quality. However, in his defense, these are points that tend to be ignored, so pounding it in may be necessary. I came away from reading this book with an enhanced understanding of the need for cleaner and smoother user interfaces in my design. In the future, I will incorporate some of the examples into my teaching of web development.

Usability IS your most effective competitive advantage.

Jakob Nielsen's latest title will most likely become THE most influential book on web design for the next twelve to eighteen months.This is a bible for web developers who are serious about business results. After four years of building and rebuilding a major Australian sport site I quickly learnt the importance of usability. Usability IS your number one competitive advantage because users ARE driven by tasks, have little patience and if your site delivers, they will come back again and again and they will spread the word.Reasons to get this book;Because you want your customers to come back! Because you already know usability is the key and need a solid reference based on REAL research.Because you currently have to KEEP spending big dollars on marketing just to maintain traffic and want to find a way to halve your budget.Because you want to say NO to that 100% Flash site your colleagues are proposing.Because you want to crush your competitors with it's knowledge.Because you want to know WHY your competitor (with that simple site with seemingly no production standards) is crushing you.Because you can't help but feel that the design team with only six months experience is a LONG way off the game.Because the money is running out, the investors are getting edgy and you need to start getting some REAL business results soon.Because you want to build a site you can be proud of.I have bought umpteen books on Internet design, strategy and marketing - my web site dominates it's market by an order of magnitude and has done so for three years (and I have spent less than $2000 in that time on advertising). Designing Web Usability is the single most valuable volume of information I have come across to date. If you have quality content - all you have to do is make it usable and your site will become a success. Designing a usable web site is no easy task even for those who have been building for years. You know you need this book.

Quite Usable

I already was familiar with Nielsen's views from his Web site. I am an enthusiastic supporter of most of his opinions.There are one or two ideas with which I disagree. For example, I believe that there should be comment forms on sites, and that these should go to high-level executives (I personally answer comment forms for my business). If you are getting overwhelmed with dumb questions, take that as actionable information.Also, Nielsen believes in treating your home page as an orientation page. Because the majority of links to our site do not point to our home page, we cannot assume that the consumer ever will go to that page during a site visit.Those are nits. Everything else in this book is advice that we either have taken or have compromised on taking (not necessarily the right compromises, either).This book is more usable than Nielsen's web site in three ways.1. Screen shots. Having the screen shots on the pages is like having Nielsen sitting next to you, jabbing you in the ribs and saying, "See what I mean?"2. Time to absorb. Reading his advice in book format, I have more time to absorb it. I picked up on little details (like using Link Titles) and I became more motivated to implement some of his other ideas.3. Bookmarks. I don't use bookmarks much on the Web (I can't keep them organized), but I have some of his pages marked, which makes it easy to refer to them.Because of these usability advantages, the book is value added relative to Nielsen's web site.