Book Review - Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger
Category Book Reviews
This is one of those book reviews where I have to separate content from my biases on the presentation of that content... Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger. Let me elaborate...
Contents: Introduction - Nothing To Hide; The Web User Experience; Revisiting Early Web Usability Findings; Prioritizing Your Usability Problems; Search; Navigation and Information Architecture; Typography - Readability & Legibility; Writing for the Web; Providing Good Product Information; Presenting Page Elements; Balancing Technology with People's Needs; Final Thoughts - Design That Works; Index
I acknowledge that Nielsen is an industry expert in web usability. He has done extensive usability studies with web sites to capture what works and what doesn't when it comes to web design. His book Designing Web Usability is often cited as the bible of what should and shouldn't be done on your site. In Prioritizing, the authors take a look at the past to see if there's been any improvement on the killer sins of web design as covered in Designing. They update the ranking of the most heinous examples of "features", and then cover what items should be addressed first when it comes to fixing your site. There's no way to make a perfect site, and you can use this information to focus on getting the biggest payback on your efforts.
Where I have a problem is with the "attitude" that I perceived in the material. Designing was one of the first web design books I read, and it really put me off of those types of books. The expert says "I don't like this", therefore no one should do that. If something loads in more than 1.52 seconds, it's bad. I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's the sense I got from reading the book. Prioritizing is a bit better, but I still had the feeling that Nielsen's preferences and nitpicking were being held up as "best practices", just because he says so. Yes, I know there is an abundance of research behind his numbers, but going on about how 17% do this and 19% do that got to be a bit much at times. And when I ran across a couple of pages that had a number of typos scattered throughout, I couldn't help but chuckle...
Yes, this is good information to read and know. We all know that many sites leave much to be desired when it comes to actual usage. But I would have had an easier time being open to it if there was a bit more pragmatism and a bit less dogma... Could just be me, and your mileage might vary, however...
This is one of those book reviews where I have to separate content from my biases on the presentation of that content... Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger. Let me elaborate...
Contents: Introduction - Nothing To Hide; The Web User Experience; Revisiting Early Web Usability Findings; Prioritizing Your Usability Problems; Search; Navigation and Information Architecture; Typography - Readability & Legibility; Writing for the Web; Providing Good Product Information; Presenting Page Elements; Balancing Technology with People's Needs; Final Thoughts - Design That Works; Index
I acknowledge that Nielsen is an industry expert in web usability. He has done extensive usability studies with web sites to capture what works and what doesn't when it comes to web design. His book Designing Web Usability is often cited as the bible of what should and shouldn't be done on your site. In Prioritizing, the authors take a look at the past to see if there's been any improvement on the killer sins of web design as covered in Designing. They update the ranking of the most heinous examples of "features", and then cover what items should be addressed first when it comes to fixing your site. There's no way to make a perfect site, and you can use this information to focus on getting the biggest payback on your efforts.
Where I have a problem is with the "attitude" that I perceived in the material. Designing was one of the first web design books I read, and it really put me off of those types of books. The expert says "I don't like this", therefore no one should do that. If something loads in more than 1.52 seconds, it's bad. I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's the sense I got from reading the book. Prioritizing is a bit better, but I still had the feeling that Nielsen's preferences and nitpicking were being held up as "best practices", just because he says so. Yes, I know there is an abundance of research behind his numbers, but going on about how 17% do this and 19% do that got to be a bit much at times. And when I ran across a couple of pages that had a number of typos scattered throughout, I couldn't help but chuckle...
Yes, this is good information to read and know. We all know that many sites leave much to be desired when it comes to actual usage. But I would have had an easier time being open to it if there was a bit more pragmatism and a bit less dogma... Could just be me, and your mileage might vary, however...
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Comments
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/jakob_nielsen_on_web_usability_problems_again.html
Posted by Dave Taylor At 15:27:53 On 25/06/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Duffbert At 19:10:08 On 25/06/2006 | - Website - |