Customer Rating:  
Summary: Usability is often overlooked
Comment: If you don't yet know much about web usability, I would recommend this book (and it's predecessor) to you. If you are already keen on the idea of web usability, then you may want to skip the first book (it is a bit dated), and grab this one as a reference.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great resource!
Comment: This book validates things I've have known for years and guarantees I have been on the right track. It also allows us as Information Architects to reference areas of workflow that are up for debate daily, such as what users look for on a page, where and how often.
This book is a must for any IA or web designer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lots of words
Comment: I've been on Nielsen's mailing list for a couple years now and supported most of what he said, so I bought this book thinking I'd get more good info. There is a lot of information in this book, but I was so dry all I can think was how much "easier" Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition was to read. So, I ended up only skimming through 2/3s of the book. Now, when I start a new project and want to touch up on my usability principles, it is Steve's book I reach for, not Nielsen's. I hope others can get more out of it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book, but a bit US oriented
Comment: This is a great book (bible?) when it comes to usability issues. Reading is easy if you're not totaly new to using and coding websites.
The only "downside" to this book is that it is very US website oriented. As web design/usability in the US is way behind Europe and especialy Scandinavia many of the design/GUI examples in the book feels "old school".
If you are into improving usability for websites - buy this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Phenomenally Useful -- worth its weight in gold
Comment: Here it is Feb 2007, and I've had a website for my business since Feb of 2002. For five years I've been asking people to visit my site and give me feedback for how to improve it. What I usually got back was "lots of great information, Dan." "Easy-to-use navigation." "Loved it. Great site."
That wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted a REAL critique with REAL suggestions for how to make it better.
When I came across this book it was like an answer to prayer. I devoured it on a cross country flight, and then I followed some of its advice. In the book, they talk about how they worked with people individually, giving them tasks to find or do things online. The people were asked to perform those tasks without any guidance and also while "thinking out loud" ... that is, explaining what their thoughts were re: likes and dislikes, what they expected to see on certain sites, why they were doing what they were doing, etc.
The one piece of advice in this book that they keep suggesting over and over is "do this with your site."
So I did. I instructed some clients on the "think out loud" process, and then gave them the following scenario: "I'm your boss. I just came back from a luncheon and heard Dan Bobinski speak. Here's his card; his website is on there. See if you can find out how much he would charge to come out and work with our managers."
I then sat back and took notes while my clients tried to accomplish that task while they 'thought out loud.'
All I can say is I was devastated. They couldn't find the information. Even when they were on the right track, they couldn't identify the links or the proper info. And when I say I was devastated, I mean I was cut to the core. My website was TERRIBLE.
On the plane ride back I went through the book again, and then made a few changes to my website as soon as I could. I saw improved results almost immediately. I went from getting two or three inquiries from my website each month to getting two or three per week. And, with more changes, it's now up to two or three per day.
My team is now in the final stages of a total (and I mean TOTAL) site redesign based on the suggestions in this book, and it should be ready to launch in a few months. Everyone is excited.
This book retails for $50 ($33 here on Amazon at the time of this writing). That seems steep to some, but I must say, I would gladly pay ten or twenty times that amount for the information it contains. It is probably one of the few books that is literally worth its weight in gold.
If you run a website, or have any say whatsoever in how your website is designed, this book is an absolute must read. That's a "must" with 18" bold Helvetica letters. And get your entire web team to read it, discuss it, and beta test their ideas using Nielsen's and Loranger's suggestions.
If it doesn't pay off for you and you don't think the book was worth it, just get a hold of me and I'll buy the book from you. :-)
Oh -- and the only reason I'm giving it five stars is because I can't give it ten.
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