Customer Rating:  
Summary: This is a review of a review
Comment: A recent reviewer of this book stated that he had begun using this book as a guide to rebuilding the website he maintains. He even posted the URL of the site. I visited it. Oh, my. This is a terrible website. Confusing, ugly, filled with broken links, awful mousevover effects. If this is an example of what happens when people without solid skills read a book like this, then I am not very impressed. The world is replete with bad websites; I have no evidence (right now) that this book is making a difference. The proof in our (programming) world is always in the pudding. In other words, talk is cheap, but it is hard to build good software.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good all-around guide
Comment: This book is an excellent source for anyone who wants to develop good, easy to use sites. Sometimes the author advocates too much use of text-based only sites. But, overall it's worth spending the small amount of money to purchase it. I'm currently reading it for the 2nd time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: If You Read It, You Will Change Your Web Designs
Comment: No book has influenced me to change more in the websites I design than this one. And many of the changes I have made are just farther along the line I thought I was already following well enough. Jakob Nielsen is passionate about easy to understand and fast loading pages. Over and over again throughout the book he makes the point: "the Web is not a way of life for the average user. Most people simply want to click on a few links and read a few pages - they don't want to mess with web technology for its own sake." In this book he introduces the reader to the findings of usability studies and best practices for accommodating users. I found his screen shots of good and bad web design interesting and helpful. It seemed to me that most of his material was from 1997. In any event, the concepts were not dated. I read the book over a period of a month. I just could not take it in faster. I began rebuilding the website I have maintained since 1996 - http://www.lovinghands.com - the day I began to read. I struggled with many approaches to decreasing the amount of space devoted to navigation while making information on the site easier to find and read. I came to appreciate Nielsen's emphasis on being practical and doing the best you can rather than attempting perfect adherence to principles of design. I have learned how difficult it is to reset an established site. I am grateful that I had begun to read this book before I began a recent intranet development project. My users don't know what benefits they have gained by the influence Jakob Neilsen has had on my work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The book that will piss off most web designers
Comment: If you are a web designer, this book will either force you to re-evaluate your design architecture, or it will end up in your fireplace.As the number of web pages publised increases at an alarming rate, we as web designers, and instructors of future designers, need to take note of Jakob's message. Just because I can program a page to do virtually whatever I want, doesn't mean it should be done. Also, just because most web pages make the same mistakes, itg doesn't mean you should follow suit. This book is meant for the experienced web designer. If you have never designed a page before and are just begining, first learn your code and practice. Once you have made a few designs come back and read this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply Put: Good book Bad Layout
Comment: As a technical writer and a web/graphics designer, I was eager to read a book that seemed to focus in both areas of my professional life: content authoring and design. Jakob Neilsen has authored a sound book about the need for simplicity in both design and content. He goes to great lengths to provide examples of what works and what doesn't. I was especially pleased by the amount of time he spent on navigation. An area that MANY web designers are very weak in. As he says in his book, so many focus on "kewl" and forget usability. Hence customers don't return. Be warned though, that this book is not a weekend read. I really felt I was reading a college thesis and not a typical web reference. So be prepared, it is a bit dry. It is however worth plowing through. He points out some very good strategies for identifying and maintaining a strong structure for your designs and site content. One other thing to note is that as one other reviewer I noticed already alluded to the book's poor layout. While it is not very fancy, it is somewhat distractful to the content as it is rather amatuer looking; surprising since it is a New Riders book. In summary, it is a book worth buying, as long as you have the time to sit and read it through and through with a pot of coffee and a notebook. If not, buy something else.
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