Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity

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Reviews and Articles About the Book

• boschatzberg.com: Book report (2009): "For the most part, the guidelines in this book still apply today, even though the book was published in 1999. [...]This book is a must-read for anyone working on the web."
• stevenclark.com.au: Review (2008): "well worth a read and still relevant and correct"
• Weinberg's research blog: Review (2008): "I'm glad I read this book. [...] Nielsen has a way of saying things very simply and clearly"
• Business Week: Jakob Nielsen's Gospel of Good Web Design (March 2, 2000): "should [...] be read by any executive with responsibility for managing online operations"
• NewMedia (September 2000): Who Says Design Should be Simple?: "No one with whom I've spoken about Designing Web Usability has come away unaffected" [...] "the most important book of the year"
• Danny Yee's Book Reviews (March 31, 2000): "the most important book on web publishing yet to appear"
• FlashMagazine (2002): "Surprisingly, as time goes by, "Designing Web Usability" becomes more useful [...] you will return to this book many times"
• Linux ISO: "I couldn't put it [the book] down! The author, Jakob Nielsen, is entertaining, direct, and obviously not one to join the latest trend of the day."
• Professional WebMaster Magazine (July/August 2000): "explains lots of factors that taken individually fall into the 'obvious' category and when juxtaposed in an intelligent fashion lead to a far deeper understanding of the subject than you would have been able to arrive at on your own"
• Builder.com (July 2001): "an undeniable standard ... this book is necessary for those who want to understand the Web and its users"
• Rough Notes Magazine (May 2001): Designing Successful Web Sites: Put usability first; practice simplicity: "Scores of books purport to offer insight into successful Web site design. At least one actually does. ... It is recommended reading for agency principals and Web managers alike."
• Internet World UK (March 2000): "if the Web design company you are employing hasn't got a copy of this book on its shelves, you'll know to go somewhere else"
• Free Pint Bookshelf (March 2001): "It is a testament to the usefulness of this book that it has lived beside my terminal at work for the last few weeks as I put the theory into practice."
• Telecomwire (October 2000): "a must for any business who wants to create a strong online presence"
• New Architect (August 2000): Keeping Sites Simple: "Nielsen has done a great service to the entire Web community by showing why simplicity in design is important, and by clearly explaining how to achieve it"
• Digital Libraries Magazine (June 2000): "When I visit a hard-to-use site, it often seems clear that Nielsen's advice would have made the site easier to use. It's not that the web is inherently hard to use or that I can't figure out a particular site; the site's designers are to blame."
• Slashdot (April 27, 2000): "well researched, sensible, and right on target [...] impressively concise and comprehensive"
• Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, Science rules in Web design (April 3, 2000): "relentlessly sensible"
• Ex Libris: E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies (March 10, 2000): "I can't think of a more valuable resource for both amateur and experienced webmasters"
• Chicago Tribune, reading list about current technology (March 6, 2000): "Jakob Nielsen knows more about what makes Web sites work than anyone else on the planet"
• WebReference Newsletter, December 1999: We interview the Web's usability czar about his new book and the Web's future
• Author interview on Amazon.com, January 2000
• Comments on the book by people who read an advance copy of the manuscript

Table of Contents

Preface

• Preface to the 7th printing of the book

1. Introduction: Why Web Usability?

• Art Versus Engineering
  • About the Examples
• A Call for Action
• What This Book Is Not
  • Bad Usability Equals No Customers
• Why Everybody Designs Websites Incorrectly

2. Page Design

• Screen Real Estate
  • Data Ink and Chart Junk
• Cross-Platform Design
  • Where Are Users Coming From?
  • The Car as a Web Browser
  • Color Depth Getting Deeper
  • Get a Big Screen
  • Resolution-Independent Design
  • Using Non-Standard Content
  • Installation Inertia
  • Helpful Super-Users
  • When Is It Safe to Upgrade?
  • Collect Browsers
• Separating Meaning and Presentation
  • Platform Transition
  • Data Lives Forever
• Response Times
  • Predictable Response Times
  • Server Response Time
  • The Best Sites Are Fast
  • Speedy Downloads, Speedy Connections
  • Users Like Fast Pages
  • You Need Your Own T1 Line
  • Understanding Page Size
  • Faster URLs
  • Glimpsing the First Screenful
  • Taking Advantage of HTTP Keep-Alive
• Linking
  • Link Descriptions
  • Link Titles
  • Guidelines for Link Titles
  • Use Link Titles Without Waiting
  • Coloring Your Links
  • The Physiology of Blue
  • Link Expectations
  • Peoplelinks
  • Outbound Links
  • Incoming Links
  • Linking to Subscriptions and Registrations
  • Advertising Links
• Style Sheets
  • Standardizing Design Through Style Sheets
  • WYSIWYG
  • Style Sheet Examples for Intranets
  • Making Sure Style Sheets Work
• Frames
  • <NOFRAMES>
  • Frames in Netscape 2.0
  • Is It Ever OK to Use Frames?
  • Borderless Frames
  • Frames as Copyright Violation
• Credibility
• Printing
• Conclusion

3. Content Design

• Writing for the Web
  • The Value of an Editor
  • Keep Your Texts Short
  • Copy Editing
  • Web Attitude
  • Scannability
  • Why Users Scan
  • Plain Language
  • Page Chunking
  • Limit Use of Within-Page Links
• Page Titles
• Writing Headlines
• Legibility
• Online Documentation
  • Page Screenshots
• Multimedia
  • Waiting for Software to Evolve
  • Auto-Installing Plug-Ins
• Response Time
  • Client-Side Multimedia
• Images and Photographs
  • Image Reduction
• Animation
  • Showing Continuity in Transitions
  • Indicating Dimensionality in Transitions
  • Illustrating Change Over Time
  • Multiplexing the Display
  • Enriching Graphical Representations
  • Visualizing Three-Dimensional Structures
  • Attracting Attention
  • Animation Backfires
• Video
  • Streaming Video Versus Downloadable Video
• Audio
• Enabling Users with Disabilities to Use Multimedia Content
• Three-Dimensional Graphics
  • Bad Use of 3D
  • When to Use 3D
• Conclusion
  • The Attention Economy

4. Site Design

• The Home Page
• How Wide Should the Page Be?
  • Home Page Width
• Splash Screens Must Die
• The Home Page Versus Interior Pages
  • Deep Linking
  • Affiliates Programs
• Metaphor
  • Shopping Carts as Interface Standard
  • Alternative Terminology
• Navigation
  • Navigation Support in Browsers
  • Where Am I?
  • Where Have I Been?
  • Where Can I Go?
  • Site Structure
  • The Vice-Presidential Button
  • Importance of User-Centered Structure
  • Breadth Versus Depth
• The User Controls Navigation
  • Design Creationism Versus Design Darwinism
  • Help Users Manage Large Amounts of Information
  • Future Navigation
  • Reducing Navigational Clutter
  • Avoid 3D for Navigation
• Subsites
• Search Capabilities
  • Don't Search the Web
  • Micro-Navigation
  • Global Search
  • Advanced Search
  • The Search Results Page
  • Page Descriptions and Keywords
  • Use a Wide Search Box
  • See What People Search For
  • Search Destination Design
  • Integrating Sites and Search Engines
• URL Design
  • Compound Domain Names
  • Fully Specify URLs in HTML Code
  • URL Guessing
  • Beware of the Os and 0s
  • Archival URLs
  • Y2K URL
  • Advertising a URL
  • Supporting Old URLs
• User-Contributed Content
• Applet Navigation
  • Double-Click
  • Slow Operations
• Conclusion

5. Intranet Design

• Differentiating Intranet Design from Internet Design
• Extranet Design
• Improving the Bottom Line Through Employee Productivity
  • Average Versus Marginal Costs
• Intranet Portals:
• The Corporate Information Infrastructure
  • Get Rid of Email
  • Intranet Maintenance
  • The Big Three Infrastructure Components: Directory, Search, and News
• Intranet Design Standards
  • Guidelines for Standards
  • Outsourcing Your Intranet Design
• Managing Employees' Web Access
  • Hardware Standards
  • Browser Defaults
  • Search Engine Defaults
• Intranet User Testing
  • Field Studies
  • Don't Videotape in the Field
• Conclusion

6. Accessibility for Users with Disabilities

• Web Accessibility Initiative
  • Disabilities Associated with Aging
  • Assistive Technology
• Visual Disabilities
  • ALT Attributes
• Auditory Disabilities
• Speech Disabilities
• Motor Disabilities
• Cognitive Disabilities
  • Search Without Spelling
• Conclusion: Pragmatic Accessibility

7. International Use: Serving a Global Audience

• Internationalization Versus Localization
• Designing for Internationalization
• International Inspection
  • Should Domains End in .com?
• Translated and Multilingual Sites
  • Language Choice
  • Make Translations Bookmarkable
  • Multilingual Search
• Regional Differences
• International User Testing
  • Overcoming the Language Gap
  • How Many Countries Should You Test?
  • Thanking Your Participants
• Methods of Testing
  • Travel Yourself
  • Add a Few Days to Your Stay
  • Remote User Testing
  • Usability Labs for International Testing
• Self-Administered Tests
• Conclusion

8. Future Predictions: The Only Web Constant Is Change

• The Internet Is Hard
• Long-Term Trends
  • The Anti-Mac User Interface
• Information Appliances
  • Drawing a Computer
  • The Invisible Computer
  • WebTV
  • Designing for WebTV
• Death of Web Browsers
• Slowly Increasing Bandwidth
• Metaphors for the Web
  • Different Media, Different Strengths
  • The Telephone
  • Telephone Usability Problems
  • Contact Tokens
  • The Television
• Restructuring Media Space: Good-Bye, Newspapers
  • Media Distinctions Caused by Technology
• Conclusion

9. Conclusion: Simplicity in Web Design

Recommended Readings

History of the Book Title

Errata

English
ISBN 1-56205-810-X

Related Reports In addition to following general principles for good web design, I also recommended that you run a user test of your site. For practical advice on testing, see Nielsen Norman Group's reports: 230 Tips for Usability Testing 233 Tips for Recruiting Test Users Paper Prototyping 32 minute video