Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed

This book shows why Jakob Nielsen is so highly respected in the field of usability. The first part of the book contains the principles and concepts used for properly designing Websites. They are very detailed and very complete. The second part of the book contains critiques of 50 different homepages. Most of the homepages are from medium to large companies (FedEx, Accenture, ...), but there are also a few from local companies. Nielsen sticks with the homepages because it's the most important page on most sites, and the homepage tends to reflect the structure of the rest of the site. Nielsen points out the good and bad aspects of the homepages. He also does it in a very clearly designed graphic presentation. He numbers the areas of the homepage he wishes to comment on, then follows the graphic homepages with pages of comments clearly cross-referenced to the numbers. A very easy to follow format that I will use in my own presentations from now on. Easily done using layers in Paint Shop Pro. This section of the book shows how few companies actually follow good usability practices. In fact, some of the companies that supposedly help other companies develop a Web presence actually have atrocious usability practices on their own sites (the Accenture site is particularly hideous and poorly structured, although they have improved it slightly since the book's release). The mistakes are common among designers, so Nielsen tends to be a little repetitive. Not really something he can avoid since the common mistakes are made by the page designers and they must be pointed out. We all know how bad Web design currently is because we're continually looking for things or confused by the structure or navigation of newly visited Websites. Using Nielsen's examples, any designer should be able to greatly improve their design practices. At least they'll be better than the designers at most of these 50 companies. Along with Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think and Alan Cooper's The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, this book stands at the top of the heap of usability books. And it's a better tool, especially for quick reference, than Nielsen's last book, Designing Web Usability.

In my research of writing my You Are Here Internet Guides, I have personally visited and toured well over 15,000 Web sites and I must say I find this book very impressive. A flawless job of deconstructing these 50 sites makes you want to look more introspectively at what visually stimulates viewers. It explains in detail what insightfully makes Web design sufficient and efficient for the viewer. The commentary is very easily spoken and will make you think twice about some characteristics of Web design. Things you may have normally taken for granted in Web design are pointed out. For instance, intricacies such as arrows pointing at words and how to keep it simple with text links make the user well informed. Or how some redundancies keep the user from reading more, and in turn decrease the impact of the intended marketing message shows that somes sites may be susceptible to overusability. The book takes the word "clutter" and defines it, and explains ways around it. The simplicity concept is explored deeply, explaining a site can be easy to use without sacrificing good content. I like how each site deconstructed has a pie chart that tells you can quickly and easily look at and see what the homepage allocates space for. Much thought put into critiquing the sites. I found the homepage design statistics in the beginning to be quite useful and accurate. Overall, the book is a masterpiece. There is a chock full of thought into each homepage.

His last book on the practice of simplicity was just a tease. Workers charged with the responsibility of making Web GUIs need more than pontification with sparse metrics and predictions of how great monitors "will be" in 2001.Nielsen and co-author Tahir have come down from the mountain and produced a book that is as usable as they come:(1) Take a site (you'll recognize a bunch) and give an overview in terms of what it is trying to accomplish.(2) Show metrics and comparisons on how screen space and controls are used.(3) Begin the fun in earnest with specific recommendations and focused criticism. The devil is in the details, and here is where we come away with the stuff that makes this book a valuable bargain. Opinions and advice Fortune 500 companies pay wads for are ours for the price of a book.You don't have to agree with Nielsen on anything at all. I battle usability questions daily at work and know the trade-offs in every GUI decision. Nielsen is neither right nor wrong -- but he is certainly listened to by any Web worker who must come to grips with these issues.By the way, the construction of the book itself is spectacular. I left it on my desk at work and it sucked people into my cubicle with its shape and color. And, surprisingly, not one of the screenshots of the analyzed Web sites I checked is out of date. There was no skimping on this book at all.

Jakob Nielsen is out to change the Web, one page at a time. His latest book, "Homepage Usability" coauthored with Marie Tahir, takes on the most important page of your site, the home page. Now that Nielsen and the usability community have "defeated bad design" by reducing "user-hostile" design practices they are fighting for good design. What better place to start than your own home page? The authors present 113 homepage usability guidelines that will make your site easier to use, and apply them mercilessly to 50 popular sites.This book is part of a strategic campaign against the "enemies" of usability. The members of the Nielsen Norman group, a veritable who's who of usability and design gurus, realize their Fortune 500 fees are too high for most small to mid-sized companies. They are leveraging themselves accordingly to spread the usability gospel by giving world tours, seminars and tutorials, writing books, granting interviews, and teaching other designers about usability so design teams can help themselves.The home page is a company's public face to the world, and is often the most popular page on a site. Spending more time to get it right is time well invested, as usability improvements can yield two or three-fold increases in conversion rates. The problem is, there is only one home page for each site, so conflicting forces like sales, design, and marketing invariably vie for its attention. The challenge is to design a homepage that allows access to all of your important features without cramming them all onto the page itself, overwhelming new users.>Homepage Usability Guidelines<p>The guidelines are distilled from the authors' combined 14 years of Web usability experience, and countless hours testing actual users. They are grouped by topic area, and show examples from the 50 website reviews. Here are some highlights:<p>Communicate the Site's Purpose<p>Tag lines should be brief and concise. TITLEs should begin with the company name for bookmarkability, followed by a good tagline. Avoid using "online" or unnecessary articles ("the" etc.) Don't include "hompage" or "online" in the title. Limit titles to less than 64 characters.<p>Content Writing<p>Optimize content for easy scanning. Be clear use consistent capitalization. Hire a copy editor. Avoid exclamation marks!!<p>Revealing Content Through Examples<p>Use examples to reveal the site's content, rather than just describing it. Examples instantly communicate what the site is about. Be specific.<p>Search<p>Search is one of the most important elements of the homepage so make it visible, wide, and simple. Provide a wide (25 char) input box on the top right or left of the home page. Use a "Search" button only. Search the entire site by default, users are confused by scoped searches. Don't search the Web, that's what search engines are for.<p>News and Press Releases<p>In order for them to work, you need to craft effective headlines and decks (story summaries). Give specific information, don't tan