If one cares about usability, this is a page turner. I could hardly put it down. And I'm sure this is one of the few books I own that I will use daily and keep handy and probably well marked. To me, that's the sign of a very good, very important book. One you live with.

When you've read this book, you'll know more about usability than probably 90 percent or more of the people on the web. And you'll be able to create a site that will be useful to people, which translates into more business.

Most of the sites on the web today are really pretty bad. Both the design and the copy are bad. When you understand usability you can make a site that works for everyone concerned.

This book is fascinating. It's easy to read and understand. It covers all the topics that are usability concerns. This is NOT a book about web design. It's about usability and incorporating it into your design and into your writing. So writers as well as designers should read it.

I read "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug and I found it a very good book. I learned a lot from it. But after reading this book by Jakob Nielsen I really "got it". And you will too.

I highly recommend this very valuable book. It's an investment that will pay big dividends.

Susanna K. Hutcheson
Owner and Executive Copy Director
Powerwriting.com

At any rate, I am a firm believer (and practitioner) of the philosophy that one does not need to sacrifice esthetics for usability, as opposed to the strategies presented herein by Herr Neilson. Do not listen to this man; he is a self-proclaimed "expert" who, by demonstration via his own Web site, has no clue how to address the true needs and concerns of Web customers - let alone, Web users. Stay away from this book!

If you are serious about building a site and have little experience and are willing to disregard much of what you see across the web then this book if for you.

My only failure was when you hit the homepage.. you should know immediately what the site offers.

That I need some revisions at this point.

Book was well worth the read. It might make some pages a bit borning, but you can skip those rules. Once you understand what makes a lot of pages really horrible, you can eliminate that stuff from your site and get moving.

Animated gifs, scorlling marques, flashing text.. huge video files.. simple stuff like that really detracts from your site.

All in all, this book was well worth the read. It went by really quick.

But seriously...

Some people may complain about this book, or say that it's not very useful, but like *anything* on usability, it's about lessons. Jakob Nielsen is quite the usability Yoda, and he very much shows what he considers to be elements of high (or in many cases) low usability.

His approach is nice for a couple of reasons. Often, when designing an element, you may ask yourself "Is this usable?" Most developers are blind to usability, as they can use their own code, and fail to take into consideration someone unfamiliar with thier process. Nielsen, through his copious examples, shows what's common on the internet, and describes usability elements based on that. The fact is, most of what we see and use on the internet could be vastly improved. He simply points it out.

Just like anything, this book should be read and taken with a grain of salt. Absorb what he has to say, and see how it applies to your development. While he is considered very yoda-like, he isn't the be-all, end-all authority (I can hear some people's teeth grinding at that comment... heh). Use what makes sense, and eschew what doesn't.

Overall, however, I *highly* recommend reading this book, if just for the usability perspective. You'll learn a lot, even if you don't try. An excellent book.