Prioritizing Web Usability
Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:37 pm
Prioritizing Web Usability
By Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger
Review by: Alex
Prioritizing Web Usability is the sequel to the most well known book on Usability within website design, Designing Web Usability. The reason this is mentioned at the very start of this review is that it not only has a lot to live up to, people wishing to read this book would do well to read Nielsen's original book before hand. The reason for this is that Prioritizing Web Usability takes off where its big brother left off and brings everything smack up-to-date with a bump. Nielson (who is a little less fanatical in this book) takes a look at what has changed since the release of his original groundbreaker of a book, updates some fresh examples of new websites which pose new or interesting usability problems and even breaks on some new ground which has been found from years of intensive research. Just from reading this book you will understand the importance of web usability and will realise that it is still as misunderstood today as it was when the original book was released and that the internet has a long way to go to become a master of this fine art form. Usability in all of its glory is an important subject for website designers to learn and though Nielsen’s original book is still classed as the holy bible of usability, you can look at this new book as a sort of "New Testament" in which the rest of the story is rounded off to bring you more useful information on how to make your websites as usable as possible. A downside of both books is that they are thick and wordy which for those on a shoestring budget for time are going to turn down the book in favour of "Don't Make Me Think!" by Steve Krug. This isn’t a bad thing by any means but between both of Nielsen’s books you will have a complete usability guide which will help you maximize your websites usability rankings, therefore it would be a good idea to have both of these books on your shelf, even if it is used just as a reference.
The chapters of this book include the following... The Preface explains what Usability is, where to find user research, usability as it used to be and as it is now and then gives an introduction on who should read the book. Chapter 1 explains where the information gathered for the book was collected and then goes on to explain why user testing is needed (and if in an exception it is not needed). Chapter 2 details about the web user experience including how people use the web, user satisfaction, how people use sites, search dominance, scrolling, design conventions and information foraging. Chapter 3 then details revisiting those findings which still apply from years ago to today; these include problems which have not changed, the change of technology on usability, adaptation by users, restraint from the developers perspective and assessing the fate of the findings. Chapter 4 goes on to show you how to prioritize your usability problems through severity scoring, the misery scale, user failure problems and explaining what makes problems severe. Chapter 5 details usability and searching, this includes a section of the book explaining if search is needed on your site, the state of search, how search should work, the search interface, how the results page should be setup, and how to optimize your search. Chapter 6 moves on to a big area of usability problems which is Navigation and explains what are the best practices for navigation methods. Chapter 7 shows how you should arrange the body text, fonts, colours, text images, moving text and other related values in terms of typography usability standards. Chapter 8 explains writing for the web including how to write for the reader, how poor writing makes sites fail and how to understand how users read your content. Chapter 9 details how to provide good product information including prices, how to win confidence, support comparison and quality content with sales support. Chapter 10 shows you how to present page elements and how to make the most out of white space. Chapter 11 then goes on to tell you about balancing technology with the needs of people, this chapter focuses on multimedia expectations, interface conventions, excesses of internet rich content and the practice of simplicity. Finally in Chapter 12 the authors reflect back on all of the items covered through the book and make final thoughts they may have.
This book is suitable for the following types of people interested in website development:
By Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger
Review by: Alex
Prioritizing Web Usability is the sequel to the most well known book on Usability within website design, Designing Web Usability. The reason this is mentioned at the very start of this review is that it not only has a lot to live up to, people wishing to read this book would do well to read Nielsen's original book before hand. The reason for this is that Prioritizing Web Usability takes off where its big brother left off and brings everything smack up-to-date with a bump. Nielson (who is a little less fanatical in this book) takes a look at what has changed since the release of his original groundbreaker of a book, updates some fresh examples of new websites which pose new or interesting usability problems and even breaks on some new ground which has been found from years of intensive research. Just from reading this book you will understand the importance of web usability and will realise that it is still as misunderstood today as it was when the original book was released and that the internet has a long way to go to become a master of this fine art form. Usability in all of its glory is an important subject for website designers to learn and though Nielsen’s original book is still classed as the holy bible of usability, you can look at this new book as a sort of "New Testament" in which the rest of the story is rounded off to bring you more useful information on how to make your websites as usable as possible. A downside of both books is that they are thick and wordy which for those on a shoestring budget for time are going to turn down the book in favour of "Don't Make Me Think!" by Steve Krug. This isn’t a bad thing by any means but between both of Nielsen’s books you will have a complete usability guide which will help you maximize your websites usability rankings, therefore it would be a good idea to have both of these books on your shelf, even if it is used just as a reference.
The chapters of this book include the following... The Preface explains what Usability is, where to find user research, usability as it used to be and as it is now and then gives an introduction on who should read the book. Chapter 1 explains where the information gathered for the book was collected and then goes on to explain why user testing is needed (and if in an exception it is not needed). Chapter 2 details about the web user experience including how people use the web, user satisfaction, how people use sites, search dominance, scrolling, design conventions and information foraging. Chapter 3 then details revisiting those findings which still apply from years ago to today; these include problems which have not changed, the change of technology on usability, adaptation by users, restraint from the developers perspective and assessing the fate of the findings. Chapter 4 goes on to show you how to prioritize your usability problems through severity scoring, the misery scale, user failure problems and explaining what makes problems severe. Chapter 5 details usability and searching, this includes a section of the book explaining if search is needed on your site, the state of search, how search should work, the search interface, how the results page should be setup, and how to optimize your search. Chapter 6 moves on to a big area of usability problems which is Navigation and explains what are the best practices for navigation methods. Chapter 7 shows how you should arrange the body text, fonts, colours, text images, moving text and other related values in terms of typography usability standards. Chapter 8 explains writing for the web including how to write for the reader, how poor writing makes sites fail and how to understand how users read your content. Chapter 9 details how to provide good product information including prices, how to win confidence, support comparison and quality content with sales support. Chapter 10 shows you how to present page elements and how to make the most out of white space. Chapter 11 then goes on to tell you about balancing technology with the needs of people, this chapter focuses on multimedia expectations, interface conventions, excesses of internet rich content and the practice of simplicity. Finally in Chapter 12 the authors reflect back on all of the items covered through the book and make final thoughts they may have.
This book is suitable for the following types of people interested in website development:
- Website designers who want to make their website simple enough for anyone to be able to use.
- People who apply accessibility to their websites but have not yet looked at usability standards.
- Designers and developers who want to make the user’s trip to your site as relaxing as possible.