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Summary
Summary
The book begins with a briefing on Jakob's web usability principles, themselves culled from years of research. The 50 sites fall under such categories as Fortune 500 Sites, Highest-Traffic Sites, and E-Commerce Sites.
The content is simply presented: Four book pages are devoted to each homepage. The first page is a clean screenshot of the site's homepage (for readers to make their own, unbiased judgments), followed by a page that explains the site's purpose and summarizes its success--or failure--at usabilty. The third and fourth pages are devoted to crtiques, where Jakob and Marie present no-holds-barred commentary for specific usability practices, as well as suggestions for improvement. Although only the homepage of each site is analyzed, many of the critiques can be applied to overall website design.
Author Notes
Dr. Jakob Nielsen is principal of Nielsen Norman Group. He was previously a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer. Nielsen's Alertbox column about web usability has been published on the Internet since 1995 (www.useit.com
Marie Tahir is Director of Strategy at Nielsen Norman Group, where she has focused on B2B and B2C user experience redesign. She previously managed the Human Factors group at Intuit, Inc., and at Lotus Development Corp., she pioneered field research and user profiling methodology, and was responsible for the usability of the SmartSuite product line.
Reviews 1
Library Journal Review
Nielsen, dogmatic don of web usability, and his strategy director Tahir believe that a company needs a well-designed homepage to succeed online. They provide 113 brief usability guidelines that lead into a chapter on homepage statistics, giving readers an idea of conventions to follow or break. The homepages of 50 major web sites, from About.com to Yahoo.com, are then pictured and critiqued in terms of those recommendations and statistics. A useful resource for both novice and professional web designers; recommended for all libraries. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. 1 |
| The Role of the Homepage | p. 2 |
| The Organization of This Book | p. 4 |
| Your Action Items | p. 5 |
| The Companion Web Pages | p. 5 |
| Homepage Guidelines | p. 6 |
| What's Not in These Guidelines | p. 8 |
| Determining Homepage Content | p. 8 |
| General Web Design | p. 8 |
| Vertical Industry Segments | p. 8 |
| Accessibility | p. 9 |
| International Users | p. 9 |
| The Guidelines | p. 9 |
| Communicating the Site's Purpose | p. 10 |
| Communicating Information About Your Company | p. 12 |
| Content Writing | p. 14 |
| Revealing Content Through Examples | p. 16 |
| Archives and Accessing Past Content | p. 17 |
| Links | p. 18 |
| Navigation | p. 19 |
| Search | p. 20 |
| Tools and Task Shortcuts | p. 21 |
| Graphics and Animation | p. 22 |
| Graphic Design | p. 23 |
| UI Widgets | p. 24 |
| Window Titles | p. 25 |
| URLs | p. 26 |
| News and Press Releases | p. 27 |
| Popup Windows and Staging Pages | p. 28 |
| Advertising | p. 29 |
| Welcomes | p. 29 |
| Communicating Technical Problems and Handling Emergencies | p. 30 |
| Credits | p. 30 |
| Page Reload and Refresh | p. 31 |
| Customization | p. 32 |
| Gathering Customer Data | p. 32 |
| Fostering Community | p. 33 |
| Dates and Times | p. 33 |
| Stock Quotes and Displaying Numbers | p. 34 |
| Homepage Design Conventions | p. 35 |
| Homepage Design Statistics | p. 36 |
| Download Time | p. 39 |
| Basic Page Layout | p. 39 |
| Page Width | p. 40 |
| Liquid Versus Frozen Layout | p. 40 |
| Page Length | p. 40 |
| Frames | p. 40 |
| Fundamental Page Design Elements | p. 41 |
| Logo | p. 41 |
| Search | p. 41 |
| Navigation | p. 43 |
| Footer Navigation | p. 43 |
| Site Map | p. 44 |
| Routing Pages | p. 44 |
| Splash Pages | p. 44 |
| Frequent Features | p. 45 |
| Sign In | p. 45 |
| About Us | p. 46 |
| Contact Info | p. 46 |
| Privacy Policy | p. 47 |
| Job Openings | p. 47 |
| Help | p. 48 |
| Graphics and Multimedia | p. 49 |
| Pictures | p. 49 |
| ALT Text | p. 49 |
| Music | p. 49 |
| Animation | p. 49 |
| Advertising | p. 50 |
| Typography | p. 51 |
| Body Text and Background Colors | p. 51 |
| Link Formatting | p. 51 |
| Recommended Homepage Design | p. 52 |
| Sites | |
| About www.about.com | p. 56 |
| Accenture www.accenture.com | p. 60 |
| Amazon www.amazon.com | p. 66 |
| The Art Institute of Chicago www.artic.edu | p. 70 |
| Asia Cuisine www.asiacuisine.com.sg | p. 74 |
| Barnes and Noble www.bn.com | p. 78 |
| BBC Online www.bbc.co.uk | p. 82 |
| Boeing www.boeing.com | p. 88 |
| Cdnow www.cdnow.com | p. 92 |
| Citigroup www.citigroup.com | p. 96 |
| Cnet www.cnet.com | p. 100 |
| Cnnfn cnnfn.cnn.com | p. 104 |
| Coles www.coles.com.au | p. 110 |
| Directv www.directv.com | p. 116 |
| Disney www.disney.com | p. 122 |
| Drugstore www.drugstore.com | p. 126 |
| eBay www.ebay.com | p. 130 |
| eMagazineshop www.emagazineshop.com | p. 136 |
| Espn www.espn.com | p. 142 |
| ExxonMobil www.exxon.mobil.com | p. 148 |
| FedEx www.fedex.com/us | p. 154 |
| Federal Highway Administration www.fhwa.dot.gov | p. 160 |
| Florida Department of Revenue http://www.sun6.dms.state.fl.us/dor | p. 164 |
| Ford Motor Company www.ford.com | p. 170 |
| Gateway www.gateway.com | p. 174 |
| General Electric www.ge.com | p. 178 |
| General Motors www.gm.com | p. 184 |
| Global Sources www.globalsources.com | p. 188 |
| IBM www.ibm.com | p. 194 |
| James Devaney Fuel Company www.jamesdevaneyfuel.com | p. 198 |
| JobMagic www.jobmagic.net | p. 202 |
| Learn2 www.learn2.com | p. 208 |
| Microsoft www.microsoft.com | p. 212 |
| MotherNature www.mothernature.com | p. 216 |
| MTV www.mtv.com | p. 220 |
| NewScientist www.newscientist.com | p. 224 |
| NewsNow www.newsnow.co.uk | p. 228 |
| PBS www.pbs.org | p. 234 |
| Petsmart www.petsmart.com | p. 240 |
| Philip Morris www.philipmorris.com | p. 246 |
| PlanetRx www.planetrx.com | p. 252 |
| Red Herring www.redherring.com | p. 256 |
| Slusser's Green Thumb www.slussers.com | p. 260 |
| Southwest www.southwest.com | p. 266 |
| Ticketmaster www.ticketmaster.com | p. 270 |
| Travelocity www.travelocity.com | p. 274 |
| USA Today www.ustoday.com | p. 280 |
| Victoria's Secret www.victoriassecret.com | p. 284 |
| Wal-Mart www.walmart.com | p. 288 |
| Yahoo! www.yahoo.com | p. 292 |
| Appendix | p. 296 |
| Index | p. 306 |
