Customer Rating:  
Summary: Great overview of Web Design
Comment: Jakob Nielsen is definitely one of the top web gurus around today. This book consolidates a lot of his ideas about web design in one resource. Although I do not agree with every single rule or bit of advice that Dr. Nielsen gives in the book, overall I agree with his overall theme of simplicity. His main argument is that a web site can only be effective if the user can accomplish their purpose in visiting the web site quickly and efficiently. It doesn't matter if the user is looking up some obscure resources at the Library of Congress site, or buying CDs at Amazon.com. Both "customers" want the same thing- quality service from the site. Quality means a lot of things to different people. But at a minium, a site needs to be fast, easy to navigate, and meet the users needs. The bottom line is that every user is just a click away from leaving. A few sections of the book that are particularly useful are the ones about writing for the web, designing for an international audience, and establishing design standards. I also like the fact that the book is full of examples from real web sites, showing the strengths and weaknesses of each. The two things I do not think are that great about the book are the price, and the reduncancy of material. Simply put, it is overpriced, and the author rehashes many concepts throughout the book. Having said that, I would still recommend this book to anyone who is heavily involved with web design. You should be familiar with the concepts. If nothing else, this book will generate some ideas on how to make your website more effective.
Customer Rating:
Summary: UI Handbook
Comment: Great book for UI guidelines for the web, Mr. Nielson breaks down allot of areas into very readable, manageable sections regarding UI design.Lots of great tips, "rules", etc. Just remember to take into account your own tastes, the way much of it reads it seems as if Mr. Nielson had his way we would be back to reading just plain text pages.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource
Comment: The book really helps to organize material on the web and understand what makes or breaks a web page . It really helpe me to keep the user in mind while designing artistic sites. The author is not very artistically inclined but he is a great expert on organizing information on the web as well as creating the most ease for users.
Customer Rating:
Summary: IRONIC - this book is not very usable at all
Comment: If this was not a book about usabilty, and just web design, I would not have to give this low of a score to it. Being that Jakob Nielsen is a "web usability expert" I would expect the principles to follow over into print. Not the case.This book has small sidebars on just about everypage. The sidebars sometimes discuss topics which were on a previous page or, worse yet, a topic which has not been addressed in the main body text yet.
Through out the entire volume I found myself reading a paragraph of text, having to stop in the middle of a sentence to read the sidebars before flipping the page, then returning to the middle of the sentence and forgetting what the paragraph was actually about, then I would have to turn back a page.
There is never a reference in the text as to when I should read the side bar. And it is clearly not evident in the main body. It looks as if the sidebars were an after thought by the publisher so that his book didn't look as plain as his website. Add to this problem, the poorly captioned images and you have the most un-usable book I have ever read. And that is Ironic since it is a book about Usability. That being said, the book does have some valid info but it is absolutely not worth the effort.
If you need to read about web usabilty, try "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. He has great information and an excellent writing style. If you still feel you need Mr. Nielsen's insight, then stick to his website alertbox.com
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply Outstanding
Comment: I never thought I'd be so impressed by a book that I'd actually write a review here. However, this, by far, is the most incredible book about the science of Web usability I've ever seen. I almost feel sorry for the those who use the sites created by those who rated this book poorly. In their defense, sure, if scanning the book, a lot of what Nielsen says can be interpreted as "common sense." Unfortunately, it's obvious by looking at the images in the book, coupled with Nielsen's explanations, that many websites don't use this "common sense" approach in their site development. Personally, prior to reading the book, I didn't agree with Nielsen's "10 Laws" - to me, they seemed outdated and didn't take into account new media. Thankfully I purchased the book anyway. This book covers the gamut from navigational development to writing for the web. It is an outstanding foundation for those InfoMapping for the Web. I can only hope that Nielsen writes a book specifically for Intranet development in the future. I'm going to push that Designing for Web Usability become a standard for our department, and I suggest it as a 'must-have' for all web designers and content developers.
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