Rating: 
Summary: From a user, not a designer: Yes!
Review: I picked this book up because I do create web pages for classes I teach. But, I am definately not a web designer. As a user, I found myself agreeing constantly. If designers followed JN's precepts, the web would be a better place. It seems so obvious and simple. But clearly it's not, as so many web designers violate the most basic principles. If you do design web sites, do your users a favor: read and follow JN's principles.
Rating:
Summary: Sites for the Customer, Not Your Boss
Review: The book states that "cool" sites may impress the boss, but where it counts is when a customer gives you only seconds to prove that it's worthwhile to stay. Indeed, go to Nielsen's Web-site ... and you'll see that that the design is not going to win the Webby Award anytime soon. But to those who complain about it, ask yourselves: Why does the site useit.com get over a million more hits than I do at mine? It's the content, stupid. (I'm a Web-designer myself, but rarely do I have the patience to wait for Flash intros to load, and decipher small text and mystery-meat graphical navigation.) The book focuses therefore on how best to structure your content so that it is most easily accessible to your customers.
Rating: 
Summary: No substance here
Review: I personally found no value in this book. I read it once and thought that maybe I skipped some chapters. I studied it again and determined that no, I did not miss anything. There is simply no substance here. Perhaps the author left some chapters out by mistake. I was hoping to learn guidelines for how to present different types of information for different types of sites. I was sorely disappointed. Oh well.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books on web design I've read!
Review: This is one of the best books on web design I've ever read. It's well organized, formidably-illustrated, research-based, and easy reading! This is a must for any type of web design: instructional, retail, personal, informational, etc. Dr. Nielsen's approaches web usability from the user-friendly, user-centered point of view - a winner every time. I recommend this book for any web designer as a reference tool. Dr. Nielsen reminds us what web design is all about - information, information, information - AVAILABLE and USABLE for the user/surfer/customer.
Rating:
Summary: Be wary of others "opinions"...
Review: This book is highly opinionated and seems to lack any validity in it's claims other than the authors self appointed "usability guru" status. I fell into the trap of taking this book way too seriously. It affected my work to the point where my partners and clients where saying, "What are you thinking!" Don't let this guy ruin your career! If you still feel you must read this book, remember not to take it as gospel. There's never one right way to do anything!
Rating:
Summary: whole lot of fluff
Review: It's hard to get through this book, partly because of poor design. It's padded with a lot of screen shots (of long gone websites) where he dissects the problems of the page. The screens aren't captioned, and often the accompanying text is separated from the page. There are many sidebars too, that sometimes deal with the topic at hand, often not. The end result, with competing areas of focus, is that this book is the hard copy equivalent of a <BLINK> tag. As for the content itself, it is mainly his opinon, when he does mention research it isn't referenced. Also, I've picked this book up often as a research tool, only to be disappointed that his guidelines were too generic/vague to put into practice--his idea of a web page is somewhat limited to a very general, text-centric information site. The examples, and guidelines in many instances, are dated; due to following the leader or listening to usability pundits many of his rants are obsolete. His free website is a better resource than this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Useful Book
Review: I don't know what so many people are moaning about when it comes to reviewing this book. I think this is an excellent resource; full of insight and experience that Nielson has gathered from his usability studies both past and present. I am sure this book would help many many Web developers to build better sites. Maybe there are people out there who are beyond this book and have the sophistication, knowledge and experience to lean on their own resources, but for the rest of us this is a very solid place to start. If you are interested check out Nielsen's own Web site and dig into his mailing list archive. It is an invaluable resource to me, and I have printed out many of these article and put them in a folder for my own reference. His site is useit.com. My Web development company has a fantastic designer and a great production team, this book only helps enhance our existing talents. Go to your local book store and read through it there even.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much of nothing
Review: Nielsen's approach to teaching web design is "learning by example". The entire book is an endless series of screen dumps accompanied by Nielsen's comments about what is "good" and "bad" about the particular design. Unfortunately, most of the narration are only substantiated by "proof by pronunciation by eminent authority" (i.e. Nielsen himself). There is almost no reference to research, and very little resembling theory. There certainly is a lot of common sense expressed in the book, and an occasional tip and trick of to be utilised by a practising web designer may also from its pages of this book. But in its stated objective: to teach the student the fundamental principles of web site design, Nielsen's book fails miserably.
Rating:
Summary: It would help if the author had practiced.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Just look at his website first - the proof is in the pudding
Review: Jakob Neielsen has his own website at http://www.useit.com/. If you even think about buying this book and consider yourself a web designer, take a look at his site first. Frankly speaking, it stinks! He even breaks some of his own rules about text clutter and long scrolling pages. Perhaps you like his site. If so, then maybe this book is for you. Maybe I can get a PhD in web usability, proclaim myself a guru, and sell books. I'll get companies to pay me 175k to give them verbal feedback on their site based on some simple principles that should be summed up in one article - Creating text based websites for morons. By the way, in the same vein of the Dummies books, Jakob assumes that people are idiots. Buy his book and prove him right (the press sure has). Maybe you can buy the book for half price - mine's for sale. Heil Jakob, der fuhrer of usability!
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