This guide segments discussions of Web usability into page, content, site, and intranet design. This breakdown skillfully isolates for the reader many subtly different challenges that are often mixed together in other discussions. For example, Nielsen addresses the requirements of viewing pages on varying monitor sizes separately from writing concise text for "scanability." Along the way, the author pulls no punches with his opinions, using phrases like "frames: just say no" to immediately make his feelings known. Fortunately, his advise is some of the best you'll find.

One of the unique aspects of this title is the use of actual statistics to buttress the author's opinions on various techniques and technologies. He includes survey results on sizes of screens, types of queries submitted to search portals, response times by connection type and more. This book is intended as the first of two volumes--focusing on the "what." The author promises a follow-up title that will show the "hows" and, based on this installation, we can't wait. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Cross-platform design, response time considerations, writing for the Web, multimedia implementation, navigation strategies, search boxes, corporate intranet design, accessibility for disabled users, international considerations, and future predictions.

Product Description

Users experience the usability of a web site before they have committed to using it and before making any purchase decisions. The web is the ultimate environment for empowerment, and he or she who clicks the mouse decides everything. Designing Web Usability is the definitive guide to usability from Jakob Nielsen, the world's leading authority. Over 250,000 Internet professionals around the world have turned to this landmark book, in which Nielsen shares the full weight of his wisdom and experience. From content and page design to designing for ease of navigation and users with disabilities, he delivers complete direction on how to connect with any web user, in any situation. Nielsen has arrived at a series of principles that work in support of his findings: 1. That web users want to find what they're after quickly; 2. If they don't know what they're after, they nevertheless want to browse quickly and access information they come across in a logical manner. This book is a must-have for anyone who thinks seriously about the web.

There's no way anyone can finish that sentence and have it ring true to me, since the Web is such a hugely multifaceted environment. It's not - and never has been, at least not since Mosaic 1.0 - a purely informational medium. Neither is it a purely commercial environment. It contains both these elements, along with a strong leaving of emotion and an increasing ability to display aesthetic sophistication.

With these thoughts in mind, it's purely irresponsible to *demand* that Web sites be designed solely according to the Taylorist precepts of Nielsen's so-called "practice of simplicity." Simplicity is a wonderful thing - even an underrated thing - but there are topics on the Web, as in life, that require complexity, even idiosyncrasy. The implied insult in "Designing Web Uability" is that users are dimwitted drones who can't be expected to deal with idiosyncrasy.

And while the review-of-a-review below may seem snarky, the guy's got a point. I don't want to sound elitist, but simplicity in practice demands subtlety - mastery of the sort that generally eludes "Dummies." This book will *not* make you a Web design professional, and if the below example is any proof, it cannot even teach you the basics of aesthetic balance. Nielsen himself admits as much.

Usability is a good thing. It is not a religion. Nielsen loses sight of this, which makes him dangerous; half-competent project managers who take up his cause without ever having designed a Web site themselves are more dangerous still.

I think it's time for the anti-Nielsen: a loud, proud statement that design is OK, that users are clever, that Flash can be useful, and that emotion is at least equal to commerce and utility in the life of the Web.


good but not gospel   February 10, 2000
 107 out of 108 found this review helpful

I agree with other reviewers, Jakob does present his ideas as Rules You Must Follow, rather than observations or suggestions. On a few things, he offers no data to back up his assertion, and on a couple things I know he's factually incorrect. I also agree that there are a lot of typos in this book, but only if you're observant.

However, what he does present is just great. I like the writing style. I like the example images. For example, when he says to design for "any" screen size, and then shows you 3 screenshots of Web sites that lock themselves into a certain size, that certainly illuminates how stupid some designers can be.

One other point. Jakob is writing for usability, about how people get information. He pays no attention to marketing issues, such as branding, creating product interest, giving the customer a memorable experience, entertainment, etc. It is fine that he concentrates on other areas, but know before you buy the book that you will have to make up you own mind in those areas (at least). For instance, site reports from the Web site I work on show that any time I throw a DHTML "whiz-bang" widget onto the site, the area it is promoting gets a doubling to a quadrupling of traffic. That flies in the face of his "don't use whiz-bang features" philosophy. But I've learned that his data and my data don't always agree. So take Jakob with a grain of salt.


An excellent starting point for students of info design   January 25, 2000
 92 out of 106 found this review helpful

On pages 13 and 14, Jakob writes: "You are probably going to have to buy two books...this book will tell you *what* to do with your site and an implementation book to tell you *how* to put that design on the Net."

I wholeheartedly agree with Jakob's statement here. This book should be read required reading for anyone who saw a "kewl" webpage with lots of "neat" navigation elements and wants to try their hand at website design. There are simply too many badly designed, useless sites out there. We don't need to add any more to the pile.

This book's focus seemed to be toward the news publishing industry and producers of "static" pages in general. The only thing I wish this book covered more was how to design complex web _applications_ (non-static pages) for improved usability.

I've been watching Jakob's columns since 1997 and I have seen many of his predictions about the Web and usability come true. I highly recommend this book to site designers and CEOs alike. Users of their websites will be the ones to benefit.


It would help if the author had practiced.   February 13, 2001
 66 out of 90 found this review helpful

This book can be summarized as a complete waste of time for anyone who really wants help with web design. Neilsen has not done any actual web design work in years and still looks back to his job at Sun (10 years ago) as if it has any relevance to the web today. 10 years ago a simple text based non graphics web site was preferable because no one had a connection fast enough to use the web in a graphical format, there were no real graphical browsers, and computers wre not powerful enough to do what a flash site today can do.

You don't need a PHD in interface design to know that less graphics on a site will make it download faster. You also don't need to pay him $175,000.00 to review your site (That is what he charges). Anyone who thinks this old man deserves that kind of money to look at their site and give their opinion needs more help then any one book can give them. You could hire a whole market research firm to do focus groups and surveys for less than this.

In no way has this man addressed the fact that every web site does not have to appeal to every possible person that comes to it. Web sites are made for a purpose and the only people that the site you design has to appeal to is your target audience. Neilsen picks apart every site because this person or that person may not like the site for whatever reason. You could find some reason to dislike any site, but that isn't how you design a web site. You pick you target audience and you design a site that appeals to that audience. You can't be everything to everyone.

Neilsen thinks a boring text only web site is what everyone needs. Maybe his eyesight is starting to go and he can't focus enough to keep up with a site that has actual visual appeal.

Try combining a little creativity with usability and see if people like the site better.


The Jakob Nielsen Drinking Game   May 2, 2001
 56 out of 79 found this review helpful

1. Go to any web or internet related conference. 2. Sneak in lots to drink. 3. Sneak in lots of friends. 4. Attend the obligatory "User-Centered Web Design" keynote session featuring Web Usability Guru(tm) Jakob Nielsen. 5. Follow these rules:

Every time he says "micropayment", take one drink.

Every time his reasoning relies on having solved "the bandwidth problem", take one drink.

Every time he uses a made-up word like "linkrot" to sound more like Tufte, take one drink.

Every time he forgets that design can be fun, take one drink.

Every time he excuses his own refusal to observe the rules he dictates to everyone else on the grounds that he "knows his audience", take one drink.

If he mentions scrolling, take one drink.

If he mentions that users don't scroll, take one drink.

If he mentions link colors, drink: once for "blue" once for "purple" three for "red", which nobody who's used a browser since 1993 thinks of as a followed link color, anyway. It's the "active link" color, dammit.

If he mentions the Macintosh desktop metaphor, have a pretzel.

Every time he quotes statistics from an unrelated study to prove a point about Web usability, take one drink.

If he actually uses a relevant study, finish bottle.

If Nielsen admits he got his design skills from watching Jerry Pournelle work on his "web page", clutch heart and die.