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Summary: This is a review of a review
Review: A recent reviewer of this book stated that he had begun using this book as a guide to rebuilding the website he maintains. He even posted the URL of the site. I visited it. Oh, my. This is a terrible website. Confusing, ugly, filled with broken links, awful mousevover effects. If this is an example of what happens when people without solid skills read a book like this, then I am not very impressed. The world is replete with bad websites; I have no evidence (right now) that this book is making a difference. The proof in our (programming) world is always in the pudding. In other words, talk is cheap, but it is hard to build good software.
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Summary: Good all-around guide
Review: This book is an excellent source for anyone who wants to develop good, easy to use sites. Sometimes the author advocates too much use of text-based only sites. But, overall it's worth spending the small amount of money to purchase it. I'm currently reading it for the 2nd time.
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Summary: If You Read It, You Will Change Your Web Designs
Review: No book has influenced me to change more in the websites I design than this one. And many of the changes I have made are just farther along the line I thought I was already following well enough. Jakob Nielsen is passionate about easy to understand and fast loading pages. Over and over again throughout the book he makes the point: "the Web is not a way of life for the average user. Most people simply want to click on a few links and read a few pages - they don't want to mess with web technology for its own sake." In this book he introduces the reader to the findings of usability studies and best practices for accommodating users. I found his screen shots of good and bad web design interesting and helpful. It seemed to me that most of his material was from 1997. In any event, the concepts were not dated. I read the book over a period of a month. I just could not take it in faster. I began rebuilding the website I have maintained since 1996 - http://www.lovinghands.com - the day I began to read. I struggled with many approaches to decreasing the amount of space devoted to navigation while making information on the site easier to find and read. I came to appreciate Nielsen's emphasis on being practical and doing the best you can rather than attempting perfect adherence to principles of design. I have learned how difficult it is to reset an established site. I am grateful that I had begun to read this book before I began a recent intranet development project. My users don't know what benefits they have gained by the influence Jakob Neilsen has had on my work.
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Summary: The book that will piss off most web designers
Review: If you are a web designer, this book will either force you to re-evaluate your design architecture, or it will end up in your fireplace. As the number of web pages publised increases at an alarming rate, we as web designers, and instructors of future designers, need to take note of Jakob's message. Just because I can program a page to do virtually whatever I want, doesn't mean it should be done. Also, just because most web pages make the same mistakes, itg doesn't mean you should follow suit. This book is meant for the experienced web designer. If you have never designed a page before and are just begining, first learn your code and practice. Once you have made a few designs come back and read this book.
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Summary: Simply Put: Good book Bad Layout
Review: As a technical writer and a web/graphics designer, I was eager to read a book that seemed to focus in both areas of my professional life: content authoring and design. Jakob Neilsen has authored a sound book about the need for simplicity in both design and content. He goes to great lengths to provide examples of what works and what doesn't. I was especially pleased by the amount of time he spent on navigation. An area that MANY web designers are very weak in. As he says in his book, so many focus on "kewl" and forget usability. Hence customers don't return. Be warned though, that this book is not a weekend read. I really felt I was reading a college thesis and not a typical web reference. So be prepared, it is a bit dry. It is however worth plowing through. He points out some very good strategies for identifying and maintaining a strong structure for your designs and site content. One other thing to note is that as one other reviewer I noticed already alluded to the book's poor layout. While it is not very fancy, it is somewhat distractful to the content as it is rather amatuer looking; surprising since it is a New Riders book. In summary, it is a book worth buying, as long as you have the time to sit and read it through and through with a pot of coffee and a notebook. If not, buy something else.
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Summary: A little too simple
Review: For anyone who already has basic knowledge of HCI principles and interface design, this book is rather simple. Nielsen covers topics which may be useful for someone who has never heard of usability...but for most in the field who strive to make usability a part of their designs, this book will be a quick read as it just "points out the obvious". I would recommend this book only for people who want an introduction to web site design, not those who want a more in-depth look at real usability issues.
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Summary: Design a Book I want to Read
Review: I wish the inside of this book lived up to it's cover, or title. What a let down! Try book design. A sea of text that falls into the gutter, leaving tons of white space unused off to the side. Ugly screen captures (albiet on point, if you are paying attention). Whatever it is about this book, the layout or the writting style (take your pick), I can't finish it. I've tried a few times, and with all these glowing reviews, I guess I'll try again. I DO agree that web usability is important. A good dose of bad medicine, I suppose. I'll hold my nose and keep reading (especially since I reeeaaaallly want to get my money's worth with this one). I still think it stinks.
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Summary: Refreshingly to the point
Review: From a design standpoint, it's easy to get ticked off at Nielsen- but he's nearly always right on the money. His book is well written, well researched, and extremely relevant and timely. There are no limit of interesting sidebars throughout, and lots of visual examples to hammer home his points. There is so much in the book which rings familiar - a lot of the approach you'd find in the Yale Style Guide or in the huge variety of available web courses, or online commentary. There is a great deal of innovative advice as well. That Nielsen has compiled all of this information into one solid must-read for every web designer is really a gift. I can't wait for the follow-up volume.
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Summary: Jakob Nielsen is a Hammer
Review: Jakob Nielsen is a hammer (read engineer) and to him everything Web-related--as the saying goes-- "looks like a nail (read schematic)." Although he raises some interesting points, Nielsen stumbles in that he views the Web as a labyrinth of reference materials. To him, designing Web usability is a mater of properly navigating and indexing these reference material sites. Lacking is his understanding of visual design, interactivity, human psychology and medium convergence. As a result, he unashamedly and arrogantly disregards these aspects of not only the design of effective usability, but also the design of effective user experience as a whole. Granted, the Web started out as tool for sharing electronic documentation. Today, however, it has evolved into a medium to deliver multimedia, as well. "Designing Web Usability" is somewhat pathetic in that it seems to be pushing for a status quo that stays in the realm of old-school thinking. There is too much emphasis on giving the user total control without boundaries. He is apparently unfamiliar with the notion that certain boundaries are helpful in many cases. This realm is safe and familiar to those that are having trouble adapting to a view of the Internet as a confluence of not only information, but of communications mediums as well. If the Internet is viewed as a structure, then certainly some nails are good--and Nielsen does raise some good points as they relate to his area of expertise--information architecture. There are, however, many other components of an effective Web structure that Nielsen glosses over. This is unfortunate in that Nielsen has wide influence. In terms of his overview of information architecture, he is not nearly as detailed as Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville are in "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web." Effective usability does NOT equal effective user experience. Usability is a part, but not the whole. To have a complete perspective, it would be advisable to read more broadly, and from other schools of thought.
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Summary: ¡Fantástico! Utilísimo para todo diseñador web.
Review: El libro de Jakob Nielsen sobre diseño web no se parece a ningún otro. Nielsen, basado en un profundo conocimiento de los factores humanos que intervienen en el proceso de utilización de todo sistema de información, respaldado por su sólida trayectoria profesional y por los resultados de numerosas investigaciones de campo y laboratorio sobre el uso de páginas web, define un norte en el confuso mundo del diseño web. Nielsen sostiene con lógica impecable que el objetivo del diseño web es hacer que el sitio web sea útil y fácil de usar, y que esto debe lograrse considerando las limitaciones de la Web como medio (particularmente la baja velocidad de transmisión y la heterogeneidad y fragilidad de las plataformas cliente). El contenido y su presentación clara determinan qué tan útil es un sitio web para los visitantes, mientras que la velocidad de descargue de las páginas y la facilidad de la navegación determinan qué tan fácil es de usar. A lo largo del libro, Jakob Nielsen analiza rigurosamente estas premisas para cada aspecto del diseño web: el diseño de las páginas, el diseño del contenido, el diseño de la estructura sitio, el diseño de las intranets, el diseño para usuarios minusválidos, el diseño de sitios multilingües. El libro está lleno de ejemplos ampliamente ilustrados a todo color. Nielsen termina su libro con un inteligente ensayo sobre el futuro de la Web, y expone una conclusión fundamental: la simplicidad es el arma del diseñador web, y su máxima crear sitios que no pongan estorbos al navegante, sino que le ayuden a conseguir sus objetivos lo más rápidamente posible. Como si fuera poco, la lista de lecturas recomendadas -sitios web y libros- son una guía estupenda para seguir estudiando sobre el diseño web. No todo diseñador de sitios web aceptará sin polemizar el enfoque de Nielsen. Pero ningún profesional del diseño web debe dejar de leer este libro porque contiene la reflexión quizá más profunda e integral que se ha escrito sobre nuestra disciplina.
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