Customer Rating:  
Summary: Worth reading, but rehashes many conservative views
Comment: Designing Web Usability is a worthwhile read, but dwells on many conservative views (minimize graphics, use blue-red link color scheme, etc). Nielson doesn't acknowledge that sometimes it is better to design a wonderful site for 90% of your customers than to dull it down severely for the sake of the other web-handicapped 10%. While we may need to design for palm pilot viewing in the future, it's hardly a pressing concern right now.That said, go ahead and read it for hundreds of great usability tips (e.g. adding link titles, always using trailing slashes in HREFs, how table attributes are displayed differently in 5 browsers, etc.). Just don't take it as design gospel. It's good to know when you're making a design/usability trade-off, but sometimes the sacrifice is well worth the cost.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Required reading for all of us
Comment: With the many computer related books that I must read to continue on this technology road, I can easily say that "Designing Web Usability" has made me think more than all the others. It is a book that doesn't necessarily teach us facts and 'strict' rules as much as it pushes the development community to start thinking in new ways. Designing for 'usability' should be a given considering the Web's user base can often be newcomers to the computer world, but this isn't the case. It is easy to understand, after years of designing boring databases it is wonderful to immerse ourselves in wonderful graphics and slick navigation systems. Does any of this really serve the users? Many times not. But beware, after reading Jakob Nielson's book, you may find yourself analyzing every page you read, asking yourself "Why didn't they do this. If they would just change that over there and it would be so much easier..."
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for Designers and CEOs Alike
Comment: Jakob Nielsen really puts his finger on the core issue of websites: Are they usable? If not, your customers aren't coming back. Everybody who thinks they want a website, everyone who HAS a website -- EVERYBODY should read this book. If everyone did, and designers applied what they read, the Web would be a much friendlier and useful place.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Save your money and subscribe to Alertbox
Comment: I have been a huge fan of Jakob Nielsen for years. I am also a subscriber to his Alertbox newsletter (on useit.com).I was looking forward to this book, but alas, found nothing in here that I would classify as new or ground-breaking. If you have never, and I mean never, read a book on web design, then by all means, buy this book. But if you have read anything by Waters, Weinnman, Pirouz, McClelland, Ibanez or Flemming (all excellent writers of web design and technique) then you have covered the topics in this book already. There is no technical, or real design theory here. Search the Useit.com archives and then subscribe either directly or through devhead (ZD Net) and save your money for his next book (of which this is Part I). You'll get the same information for free ;-)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Darn Useful
Comment: I purchased this book to obtain a better understanding of web usability design for my own small business site.This book presents web usability design clearly. So clearly, in fact, that the design ideas presented can be understood and applied. I approached the book by reading the Preface and Introduction, then other topics according to design issues that I encountered. This approach has worked well, although I plan to read it straight through when I have time. Definitely a good value.
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