Customer Rating: 
Summary: Classic book, does not need a review.
Comment: This book is a classic, and also a bestseller on its area, like the Design Patterns book.Its awesome value for money, and very beautiful with many coloured web pages reproduced. I am glad the web is changing in this direction. I recommended to the whole company. I wish companies gave it as Christmas gift to employees generating content to the web.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Book for the whole team
Comment: This is an excellent book that I would recommend for anyone involved with development of web content. This includes not only the technical person laying out the actual web page, but the managers responsible for certain segments (e.g., tech support for your company), and all the way up to a CEO who wants the company web site to be an integral part of the business.The book covers issues about how to design an individual page. The importance of color choices for anchors, screen real estate, older browsers, and slow connections. To backup his positions, the author constantly cites studies and includes statistical information. The author then steps back from the individual page and looks at an entire site. He touches on consistency, metaphors, and navigation. Oh.. and *content* There is no substitute. The author also has chapters on a wide range of other issues such as designing specifically for internal Intranet use, international considerations, and the future of the web (i.e., the computer with its crisp 17" monitor may not be the primary device for accessing the web). I only had two problems with this book. First, I came away with a wealth of ideas, but I did not of the knowledge to implement them. This book needs a companion book describing the "how to". Second, I hated the binding and to a lesser extent the basic layout. I found this moderately amusing for a book about "usability". If you are involved at any level with web development, this book should be on your shelf... *after* you have read it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Usability is very important
Comment: This is a very nice book. It has a lots of real examples and Jakob Nielsen is very clever to put the points clear. The usabilty of the web sites and more specific in the web services is a key component. The Philip Greenspun and Tufte books are also very good sources for good design and clean architectures. The SIMPLICITY is BETTER.Use the KISS principle.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Must-read for all would-be web designers
Comment: Nielson clearly explains important design considerations for all web designers and developers. His theme throughout the book is that every design decision you make must be in the interest of helping to communicate information to the reader. His basic messages are: There are too many sites on the web that display distracting, if not confusing, visual elements on their pages. Learning the technical details of web page implementation is not enough. You must also understand how to effectively provide information to your site's visitors.As you progress through each chapter, he'll illustrate bad examples and then suggest improvements for them. Some very good examples of what he feels is effective design are also presented.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Intelligent Introduction to Web Usability
Comment: Nielson's book offers a straightforward and intelligent presentation of web design with a keen awareness of the big picture and what actually happens when users visit a web site. All times the practice of simplicity and ease of use are emphasized in page design, navigation, content and overall web site development.The book is heavy (literally!) with high quality color printing featuring hundreds of web sites to illustrate each of the points discussed. This could be regarded as a serious textbook that takes a deeper cut into the art and science of effective web site design than the more amusing (and also valuable) reads such as "Web Pages that Suck." Nielson addresses such issues as users with disabilities, the global nature of the web and the implications of multilingual sites, the use of metaphors, and the numerous other issues including download times, URL design, graphics, streaming video vs. downloadable video, site structure, color and text design, and so on. The book really "gets into it" and does not shy away from the nitty, gritty details, using its large quantity of illustrations to fully address each point. While it comes across as heavy handed on some occasions ("Do it this way") where an experienced web designer may see alternatives, this detail provides a great introduction for those new to web design. This one text effectively captures the most significant topics associated with designing effective web sites that will accomplish the task at hand. Reading it will put the overly zealous gif animators and latest plug-in proponents in touch with the world of the average user. Given some of the hideous web sites I've seen even from Fortune 500 companies with large web development budgets, Nielson's book is a voice of reason and intelligence in an area where hype and flash can cause people to lose sight of their objectives.
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