HCI Bibliography : HCI Webliography : HCI-SITES : ALERTBOX

ALERTBOX : Articles on Usability by Jakob Nielsen

"About Us" -- Presenting Information About an Organization on Its Website Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-10-27 useit.com

Study participants searched websites for background information ranging from company history to management biographies and contact details. Their success rate was 70%, leaving much room for usability improvements in the 'About Us' designs.

"Top Ten Mistakes" Revisited Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-05-02 useit.com

Nine of ten mistakes in Web design identified in May 1996 still cause severe usability problems and should be avoided in modern websites.

3Cs of Critical Web Use: Collect, Compare, Choose Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-04-15 useit.com

According to a recent critical incident analysis, users' most important Web tasks involve collecting and comparing multiple pieces of information, usually so they can make a choice.

8 Steps to Prepare for the Holiday Shopping Season Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-09-06 useit.com

Reduce the bounce rate for organic landing pages, collect data to manage PPC for maximum ROI, and take 6 other steps to maximize your site's holiday sales potential before it's too late.

10 Best Intranets of 2007 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-01-15 useit.com

This year's winners emphasized an editorial approach to news on the homepage. They also took a pragmatic approach to many hyped "Web 2.0" techniques. While page design is getting more standardized, there's no agreement on CMS or technology platforms for good intranet design.

10 Best Intranets of 2005 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-02-28 useit.com

On average, this year's winning intranets increased site use by 149% with designs that supported bigger screens, multinational users, collaboration, easily updated content, and factory-floor workers.

10 Best Intranets of 2003 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-10-13 useit.com

This year's winning intranet designs emphasized workflow support, self-service content management, and offloading tasks from email to collaboration tools. On average, companies spent three years between redesigns, and one year on the redesign itself.

10 Best Intranet Designs of 2001 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-11-25 useit.com

The best intranets of 2001 emphasize iterative design and standardized navigation, and feature collaboration tools and content management systems. On average, companies saw intranet use increase by 98% following their winning usability redesigns.

10 High-Profit Redesign Priorities Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-03-12 useit.com

Several usability findings lead directly to higher sales and increased customer loyalty. These design tactics should be your first priority when updating your website.

10 Best Intranets of 2010 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-01-04 useit.com

Intranet design is maturing and reaping the rewards of continuous quality improvement for traditional features, while embracing new trends like mobile access, emergency preparedness, and user/employee-contributed content.

10 Best Intranets of 2011 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-01-04 useit.com

Knowledge management progressed from cliché to reality, based on simpler and thus more-used features. Mobile intranets doubled.

10 Best Intranets of 2012 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-01-03 useit.com

Social networking and personalization rise to higher levels this year, while mobile intranets continue to cut their teeth. Also, smaller organizations get larger teams and better designs.

10 Best Intranets of 2013 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-01-06 NNgroup.com

Intranet team size has doubled, but companies do get something for this investment, including better-integrated social features and better information filtering. 70% of winners used SharePoint, but with extensive customization.

25 Years in Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-04-21 useit.com

Since I started in 1983, the usability field has grown by 5,000%. It's a wonderful job - and still a promising career choice for new people.

100 Million Websites Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-11-06 useit.com

The early Web's explosive growth rate has slowed, but even the mature Web is still expanding and recently crossed the 100 M websites mark.

A/B Testing, Usability Engineering, Radical Innovation: What Pays Best? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012- useit.com

3 approaches to better design: each has its uses, but the costs, benefits, and risks differ dramatically.

About Us Information on Websites Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-09-29 useit.com

Over the past 5 years the usability of corporate sites' About Us information improved by 9%. But companies and organizations still can't explain what they do in one paragraph.

Accessibility Is Not Enough Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-11-21 useit.com

A strict focus on accessibility as a scorecard item doesn't help users with disabilities. To help these users accomplish critical tasks, you must adopt a usability perspective.

Accessible Design for Users With Disabilities Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-10 useit.com

How to design Web sites that are accessible for users with various disabilities. Includes advice for designing for users with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities. Using good ALT-tests is only one of the rules

Accuracy vs. Insights in Quantitative Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-11-21 useit.com

Better to accept a wider margin of error in usability metrics than to spend the entire budget learning too few things with extreme precision.

Acting on User Research Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-11-08 useit.com

User research offers a learning opportunity that can help you build an understanding of user behavior, but you must resolve discrepancies between research findings and your own beliefs.

Advertising Doesn't Work on the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-09-01 useit.com

The Web is a cognitive medium; the user owns the navigation and won't wait for emotional brand messages. Product sites and classifieds have value; most ads get puny click-through and few customers

After the Buy Button: Generating Repeat Purchases in E-Commerce Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-07-06 useit.com

The best way for e-commerce sites to increase subsequent orders is to treat customers well after they place their initial order.

Agile Development Projects and Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-11-17 useit.com

Agile methods aim to overcome usability barriers in traditional development, but pose new threats to user experience quality. By modifying Agile approaches, however, many companies have realized the benefits without the pain.

Agile User Experience Projects Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-11-09 useit.com

Agile projects aren't yet fully user-driven, but new research shows that developers are actually more bullish on key user experience issues than UX people themselves.

Alertbox #200 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-09-29 useit.com

I've published 200 Alertbox columns on the Web since 1995; in addition to achieving key victories over multi-million-dollar special interests and enemies of usability, the column's readership statistics validate the practice of archiving content.

Alertbox 5 Years Retrospective Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-05-28 useit.com

Since 1995, the readership of the Alertbox has grown by 4,800%. Most of the 105 old usability columns remain valid to this day since people change more slowly than the technology. But the Alertbox has encountered some setbacks as well.

Alertbox: Ten Years Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-06-01 useit.com

300,000 words of usability essays have had an impact: online user interfaces are considerably easier to use now than they were in 1995. Many predictions and recommendations have come true, though the full Alertbox vision is far from realized.

Alphabetical Sorting Must (Mostly) Die Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-10-04 useit.com

Ordinal sequences, logical structuring, time lines, or prioritization by importance or frequency are usually better than A-Z listings for presenting options to users.

Alternative Interfaces for Accessibility Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-04-07 useit.com

The key difference between user interfaces for sighted users and blind users is not that between graphics and text; it's the difference between 2-D and 1-D. Optimal usability for users with disabilities requires new approaches and new user interfaces.

Amazon No Longer the Role Model for E-Commerce Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-07-25 useit.com

Many design elements work for Amazon.com mainly because of its status as the world's largest and most established e-commerce site. Normal sites should not copy Amazon's design.

American English vs. British English for Web Content Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-12-01 useit.com

Users pay attention to details in a site's writing style, and they'll notice if you use the wrong variant of the English language.

Anybody Can Do Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-12-21 useit.com

Usability is like cooking: everybody needs the results, anybody can do it reasonably well with a bit of training, and yet it takes a master to produce a gourmet outcome.

Archiving Usability Reports Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-06-13 useit.com

Most usability practitioners don't derive full value from their user tests because they don't systematically archive the reports. An intranet-based usability archive offers four substantial benefits.

Are Users Stupid? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-02-04 useit.com

Opponents of the usability movement claim that it focuses on stupid users and that most users can easily overcome complexity. In reality, even smart users prefer pursuing their own goals to navigating idiosyncratic designs. As Web use grows, the price of ignoring usability will only increase.

Aspects of Design Quality Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-11-03 useit.com

Usability scores for 51 websites shows some correlation between navigation, content, and feature quality, but no connections to other usability areas.

Authentic Behavior in User Testing Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-02-14 useit.com

Despite being an artificial situation, user testing generates realistic findings because people engage strongly with the tasks and suspend their disbelief.

Auto-Forwarding Carousels and Accordions Annoy Users and Reduce Visibility Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-01-19 NNgroup.com

The user's target was at the top of the page in 98-point font. But she failed to find it because the panel auto-rotated instead of staying still.

Avoid Within-Page Links Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-02-21 useit.com

On the Web, users have a clear mental model for a hypertext link: it should bring up a new page. Within-page links violate this model and thus cause confusion.

Avoiding Commodity Status Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-02-03 useit.com

PCs do not need to be commodities: a focus on quality can differentiate both products and services. Software has great potential for getting better, as shown by an under-appreciated feature in Windows XP that can save users $2,000 per year.

B2B Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-06-01 useit.com

User testing shows that business-to-business websites have substantially lower usability than mainstream consumer sites. If they want to convert more prospects into leads, B2B sites should follow more guidelines and make it easier for prospects to research their offerings.

B2B: Help Your Fans Convince Their Bosses Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-04-26 useit.com

B2B websites must support a more complex buying process than B2C sites. Three key goals are to make a buyer's shortlist, offer a downloadable advocacy kit, and build a reputation for great service.

Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-08-20 useit.com

Users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the 4 design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and reduces the value of advertising networks.

Becoming a Usability Professional Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-07-22 useit.com

A successful usability career requires some theoretical knowledge, but mainly rests on brainpower and many years' experience testing and studying users. The only way to gain that experience is to start now.

Best Application Designs Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-04-23 useit.com

The winning app UIs include domain-specific solutions that allow humans to focus on deeper issues while the software takes care of the mechanics.

Better Than Reality: A Fundamental Internet Principle Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-03-08 useit.com

Instead of emulating the real world, websites should build on the strengths of the medium and go beyond what's possible in physical reality: be non-linear, customize service, ignore geography

Beyond Accessibility: Treating Users with Disabilities as People Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-11-11 useit.com

With current Web design practices, users without disabilities experience three times higher usability than users who are blind or have low vision. Usability guidelines can substantially improve the matter by making websites and intranets support task performance for users with disabilities.

Blah-Blah Text: Keep, Cut, or Kill? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-10-01 useit.com

Introductory text on Web pages is usually too long, so users skip it. But short intros can increase usability by explaining the remaining content's purpose.

Blog Usability: Top Ten Design Mistakes in Weblogs Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-10-17 useit.com

Weblogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author.

Breadcrumb Navigation Increasingly Useful Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-04-10 useit.com

Breadcrumbs use a single line of text to show a page's location in the site hierarchy. This secondary navigation technique is increasingly beneficial to users.

Bridging the Designer-User Gap Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-03-17 useit.com

Depending on how representative designers are of the target audience, a project might need more or less user testing. Still, usability concerns never go away completely.

Browser and GUI Chrome Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-01-30 useit.com

"Chrome" is the user interface overhead that surrounds user data and web page content. Although chrome obesity can eat half of the available pixels, a reasonable amount enhances usability.

Building Respect for Usability Expertise Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-07-06 useit.com

Enemies of usability claim that because 'the experts disagree,' they can safely ignore user advocates' expertise and run with whatever design they personally prefer.

Bush vs. Kerry: Email Newsletters Rated Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-09-20 useit.com

Both candidates for president of the United States offer email newsletters with much good content to excite supporters, but miserable subscription interfaces and several other usability problems.

Bylines for Web Articles? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-02-27 useit.com

Should you say who wrote the content on your site? Sometimes yes (for credibility), sometimes no (for brevity). And rarely in mobile.

Can Hated Design Elements Be Made to Work? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-03-14 useit.com

Once users reject a design technique due to repeated bad experiences it's almost impossible to use it for good because people will avoid it every time.

Canonical Intranet Homepage Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-05-23 useit.com

Intranet homepages have become very similar in their basic layout. Intranets that look the same can nonetheless differ drastically in usability due to different features and content.

Card Sorting: How Many Users to Test Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-07-19 useit.com

Testing ever-more users in card sorting has diminishing returns, but you should still use three times more participants than you would in traditional usability tests.

Card Sorting: Pushing Users Beyond Terminology Matches Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-08-31 useit.com

It's easy to bias study participants, whether in user testing or in card sorting, if they focus on matching stimulus words instead of working on the underlying problem.

Celebrating Holidays and Special Occasions on Websites Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-10-28 useit.com

Even small holiday decorations can increase joy of use and make websites feel more current and more connected to users' lives and physical environment. The key is to commemorate without detracting from your users' main reasons for visiting the site.

Change the Color of Visited Links Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-05-03 useit.com

People get lost and move in circles when websites use the same link color for visited and new destinations. To reduce navigational confusion, select different colors for the two types of links.

Change vs. Stability in Web Usability Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-06-11 useit.com

A remarkable 80% of findings from the Web usability studies in the 1990s continue to hold today.

Changes in Web Usability Since 1994 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-12-01 useit.com

Most findings about Web usability from 1994 continue to hold. Scrolling pages and imagemaps are less of a problem; users now demand comprehensive sites.

Checkboxes vs. Radio Buttons Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-09-27 useit.com

User interface guidelines for when to use a checkbox control and when to use a radio button control. Ten other usability issues for checkboxes and radio buttons.

Children's Websites: Usability Issues in Designing for Kids Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-09-13 useit.com

New research with users aged 3-12 shows that older kids have gained substantial Web proficiency since our last studies, while younger kids still face many problems. Designing for children requires distinct usability approaches, including targeting content narrowly for different ages of kids.

Classified Advertising: A Web Success Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-09-01 useit.com

Classifieds will be the only form of successful Web ads: they need 'pull' access to a searchable database. Newspapers will die unless they dominate Web classifieds soon

Closeness of Actions and Objects in GUI Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-03-08 useit.com

Users overlook features if the GUI elements (such as buttons and checkboxes) are too far away from the objects they act on.

College Students on the Web: User Experience Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-12-15 useit.com

Students are multitaskers who move through websites rapidly, often missing the item they come to find. They're enraptured by social media but reserve it for private conversations and thus visit company sites from search engines.

Command Links Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-05-14 useit.com

Application commands can be presented as buttons or as links, which offer more room for explanation. For primary commands, however, buttons are still best.

Community is Dead; Long Live Mega-Collaboration Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-08-15 useit.com

The Web is not a community: a huge impersonal city is a better metaphor. User-contributed content can be valuable (if edited), but chat rooms should be avoided because of participation inequality

Company Name First in Microcontent? Sometimes! Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-03-03 useit.com

Typically, you should deemphasize your company's name in links, but a new guideline recommends frontloading the name for search engine links under certain conditions.

Competitive Testing of Website Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-01-19 useit.com

The average difference in measured usability between competing websites is 68%. This is smaller than expected, but makes sense given the dynamics of design within individual industries.

Computer Screens Getting Bigger Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-05-07 useit.com

Reasonably big monitors have finally become the most common class of desktop computer screen, dethroning the 1024x768 resolution that was long the target for web design.

Conservatism of Web Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-03-22 useit.com

Users demand compliance with established design conventions. No site can stand out any more; all are part of a single interwoven user experience; the Web as a whole dictates design

Content Creation for Average People Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-10-01 useit.com

To take the Internet to the next level, users must begin posting their own material rather than simply consuming content or distributing copyrighted material. Unfortunately most people are poor writers and even worse at authoring other media. Solutions include structured creation, selection-based media, and teaching content creation in schools.

Content Integration Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-06-27 useit.com

Web services often collect content from separate sources and present it to users in a single interface. Making such integration usable requires unified meta-content.

Conversion Rate: Definition (as used in UX, usability, e-commerce, and web analytics)
Jakob Nielsen 2013-11-24 NNgroup.com

Increased conversion is one of the strongest ROI arguments for better user experience and more user research. Track over time, because it's a relative metric.

Converting Search into Navigation Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-03-16 NNgroup.com

Most users are unable to solve even halfway complicated problems with search. Better to redirect their efforts into more supportive user interfaces when possible.

Convincing Clients to Pay for Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-05-19 useit.com

Professionally run design agencies user test their designs to increase the value they deliver to their clients. The challenge is getting clients to understand the benefits of a solid development methodology.

Corporate Blogs: Front Page Structure Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-08-09 useit.com

Showing summaries of many articles is more likely to draw in users than providing full articles, which can quickly exhaust reader interest.

Corporate Usability Maturity: Stages 1-4 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-04-24 useit.com

As their usability approach matures, organizations typically progress through the same sequence of stages, from initial hostility to widespread reliance on user research.

Corporate Usability Maturity: Stages 5-8 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-05-01 useit.com

An organization that reaches the managed usability stage still has far to go to reach usability nirvana. Attaining these higher maturity levels requires many years of effort.

Corporate Websites Get a 'D' in PR Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-04-01 useit.com

Corporations spend millions on PR, and yet the press sections of their websites often fail to meet journalists' most basic information needs. In our recent usability study, journalists found answers to only 68% of their questions across a range of corporate sites.

Cost of User Testing a Site Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-05-03 useit.com

Across 50 teams, the average time needed for their first usability test of a website was 39 hours. The average site had 11 usability catastrophes that prevented users from completing their tasks.

Customers as Designers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-06-11 useit.com

The Internet is undoing the industrial revolution's emphasis on mass-produced products; now everybody can get exactly what they want. But designing the product you want is hard, and current design interfaces are not good enough for novice designers (i.e., all normal customers).

Customization of UIs and Products Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-08-17 useit.com

Websites that let users customize the UI have the same measured usability as regular sites. Sites for customizing products, however, score substantially worse due to complex workflow.

Data Visualization of Web Stats: Logarithmic Charts and the Drooping Tail Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-08-14 useit.com

Using a linear diagram to plot data from website traffic logs can lead you to overlook important conclusions. Sometimes advanced visualizations are worth the effort.

Deceivingly Strong Information Scent Costs Sales Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-08-02 useit.com

Users will often overlook the actual location of information or products if another website area seems like the perfect place to look. Cross-references and clear labels alleviate this problem.

Deep Linking is Good Linking Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-03-03 useit.com

Links that go directly to a site's interior pages enhance usability because, unlike generic links, they specifically relate to users' goals. Websites should encourage deep linking and follow three guidelines to support its users.

Defeated By a Dialog Box Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-07-23 useit.com

Interaction techniques that deviate from common GUI standards can create usability catastrophes that make applications impossible to use.

Defer Secondary Content When Writing for Mobile Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-08-01 useit.com

Mobile devices require a tight focus in content presentation, with the first screen limited to only the most essential information.

Deferred Hypertext: The Virtues of Delayed Gratification Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-09-30 useit.com

Navigating a full browsing session to find information can be unpleasant and slow, particularly on mobile devices. Instead, issue a deferred request and have the information arrive later, as done by some SMS systems.

Design Guidelines for Visualizing Links Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-05-10 useit.com

Textual links should be colored and underlined to achieve the best perceived affordance of clickability, though there are a few exceptions to these guidelines.

Design of Confirmation Messages & Automated Customer Service Email Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-12-08 useit.com

Transactional email can be a website's customer service ambassador, but messages must first survive a ruthless selection process in the user's in-box. Differentiating your message from spam is thus the first duty of email design.

Design of Email Newsletters Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-09-30 useit.com

Users have highly emotional reactions to newsletters which feel much more personal than websites. In usability testing, success rates were high for subscribe and unsubscribe tasks, but users were frustrated by newsletters that demanded too much of their time.

Designing Effective Carousels Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Kara Pernice 2013-09-14 NNgroup.com

Carousels allow multiple pieces of content to appear high on the homepage. A good carousel offers visible, understandable controls, and auto-forwards at a comfortable pace.

Designing Web Ads Using Click-Through Data Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-09-02 useit.com

Search engine ads are one type of Web advertising that can actually work. To create the best ads, do quick experiments and redesign ads based on usability principles for online writing. Doing so helped us increase ad click-through by 55% to 310%.

Did Poor Usability Kill E-Commerce? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-08-19 useit.com

User success rates on e-commerce sites are only 56%, and most sites comply with only a third of documented usability guidelines. Given this, improving a site's usability can substantially increase both sales and a site's odds of survival.

Digital Divide: The Three Stages Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-11-20 useit.com

The economic divide is a non-issue, but the usability and empowerment divides alienate huge population groups who miss out on the Internet's potential.

Directions for Online Publishing Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1995-08 useit.com

Disabled Accessibility: The Pragmatic Approach Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-06-13 useit.com

New official standards make it easy to get the top priorities right and make websites accessible for users with disabilities (e.g., blind users who can't see images). But the single-design approach may be nearing the end of its life.

Discount Usability: 20 Years Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-09-14 useit.com

Simple user testing with 5 participants, paper prototyping, and heuristic evaluation offer a cheap, fast, and early focus on usability, as well as many rounds of iterative design.

Disruptive Workflow Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-03-12 useit.com

Smooth-flow task performance makes application use pleasurable. But disruptions are all too common due to crinkly design or creaking implementation.

Diversity is Power for Specialized Sites Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-06-16 useit.com

Small websites get less traffic than big ones, but they can still dominate their niches. For each question users ask, the Web delivers a different set of sites to provide the answers.

Do Government Agencies and Non-Profits Get ROI From Usability? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-02-12 useit.com

Although the gains don't fall into traditional profit columns, there are clear arguments for improving usability of non-commercial websites and intranets. In one example, a state agency could get an ROI of 22,000% by fixing a basic usability problem.

Do Productivity Increases Generate Economic Gains? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-03-17 useit.com

Usability improvements can save time-on-task, but critics argue that this is not the same as saving money. Others worry that productivity gains cause unemployment. Neither is correct: usable design saves money and saves jobs.

Does SharePoint Destroy Intranet Design? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-06-07 useit.com

As intranet projects benefit from powerful implementation platforms, teams should focus on optimizing the user experience for specific organizational needs, as 4 winning examples show.

Does User Annoyance Matter? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-03-26 useit.com

Making users suffer a drop-down menu to enter state abbreviations is one of many small annoyances that add up to a less efficient, less pleasant user experience. It's worth fixing as many of these usability irritants as you can.

Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charities Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-03-30 useit.com

User research finds significant deficiencies in non-profit organizations' website content, which often fails to provide the info people need to make donation decisions.

Drop-Down Menus: Use Sparingly Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-11-12 useit.com

Drop-down menus are often more trouble than they are worth and can be confusing because Web designers use them for several different purposes. Also, scrolling menus reduce usability when they prevent users from seeing all their options in a single glance.

Durability of Usability Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-01-17 useit.com

About 90% of usability guidelines from 1986 are still valid, though several guidelines are less important because they relate to design elements that are rarely used today.

DVD Menu Design (guest column by Don Norman, Alertbox Dec. 2001) Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Donald A. Norman 2001-12-09 useit.com

Guest column by Don Norman: Designers of DVDs have failed to profit from the lessons of previous media. DVD menu structures are baroque, less usable, less pleasurable, less effective. It is time to take DVD design as seriously as we do web design. The field needs discipline, attention, to the User Experience, and standardization of control and display formats.

E-Commerce Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-10-24 useit.com

Sites have improved, and we now know much more about e-tailing usability. Today, poor content is the main cause of user failure.

E-Mail Newsletters: Increasing Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-11-29 useit.com

New research finds improved usability metrics for subscribing to newsletters, but problems with reading them on mobile devices.

Effective Use of Cascading Style Sheets Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-07-01 useit.com

CSS promotes site consistency and improved usability if linked (not embedded), centrally designed (not by page authors), and actively evangelized with example-rich style manuals. Respect user preferences

Email Newsletters: Surviving Inbox Congestion Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-06-12 useit.com

Newsletter usability has increased since our last study, but the competition for users' attention has also grown with the ever-increasing glut of information.

Employee Directory Search: Resolving Conflicting Usability Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-02-24 useit.com

Guidelines conflict on whether to limit intranet search to a single search box or dedicate an additional box to employee directory searches. There's theory to support both guidelines. What's up?

End of Homemade Websites Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-10-14 useit.com

Web services will free individual site designers from having to program and design common features. This will decrease business costs, increase usability, and let designers focus on and improve features that are unique to each site.

End of Web Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-07-23 useit.com

Websites have to reduce their differences and allow advanced features to either become standard across sites or be extracted from the sites altogether and placed in the browser. Focus on services and content; use a standard design.

Enterprise Portals Are Popping Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-07-14 useit.com

A usability analysis of 23 intranet portals finds strong growth, increasing collaboration features, and cross-functional governance.

Enterprise Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-11-07 useit.com

Usability goes beyond the level of individual users interacting with screens. It's also a question of how easy or cumbersome it is for the entire organization to use a system.

Error Message Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-06-24 useit.com

Established wisdom holds that good error messages are polite, precise, and constructive. The Web brings a few new guidelines: Make error messages clearly visible, reduce the work required to fix the problem, and educate users along the way.

Evangelizing Usability: Changing Strategies at the Halfway Point Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-03-28 useit.com

The evangelism strategies that help a usability group get established in a company are different from the ones needed to create a full-fledged usability culture.

Explicitly State the Difference Between Options
Jakob Nielsen 2013-11-03 NNgroup.com

When the key difference(s) between UI choices are implied or buried, users often select the wrong option or miscomprehend the features.

Extreme Usability: How to Make an Already-Great Design Even Better Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-06-23 useit.com

The 1% of websites that don't suck can be made even better by strengthening exceptional user performance, eliminating miscues, and targeting company-wide use and unmet needs.

Eyetracking Study of Web Readers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-05-14 useit.com

Poynter study confirms older Web content studies: plain headlines work best; users hunt for info, often ignore graphics, and interlace sites.

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-04-17 useit.com

Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

Fallacy of Atypical Web Examples Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-06-01 useit.com

Common conclusions about Yahoo, Wall St. Journal, Disney, The WELL, and Amazon.com are wrong: generalizing Web trends from popular examples featured in the press is dangerous; spectacular case studies are often outliers

Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-09-04 useit.com

A site did most things right, but still had a miserable 14% success rate for its most important task. The reason? Users ignored a key area because it resembled a promotion.

Fast, Cheap, and Good: Yes, You Can Have It All Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-01-02 useit.com

The sooner you complete a usability study, the higher its impact on the design process. Slower methods should be deferred to an annual usability checkup.

Feature Richness and User Engagement Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-08-06 useit.com

The more engaged users are, the more features an application can sustain. But most users have low commitment -- especially to websites, which must focus on simplicity, rather than features.

Features for the Next Generation of Web Browsers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1995-07 useit.com

Feedback From Users of an Archive Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-01-10 useit.com

How to collect usability data from site users, using a historical archive as the case study. Keep surveys simple, collect data from real-world usage, and get feedback from friends of the site.

Field Studies Done Right: Fast and Observational Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-01-20 useit.com

Field studies should emphasize the observation of real user behavior. Simple field studies are fast and easy to conduct, and do not require a posse of anthropologists: All members of a design team should go on customer visits.

Field Studies vs. User Testing: The Most Important Usability Activity? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-07-16 useit.com

What's worth the most -- field studies or user tests? Depends on your company's usability maturity, but user testing is the safe bet if you can do only one thing.

Fight Against "Right-rail Blindness"
Hoa Loranger 2013-10-12 NNgroup.com

Users have trained themselves to divert their attention away from areas that look like advertising. When designed well, sidebars can effectively increase content discoverability.

First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-04-06 useit.com

Testing how well people understand a link's first 11 characters shows whether sites write for users, who typically scan rather than read lists of items.

First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-08-05 useit.com

To design an easy-to-use interface, pay attention to what users do, not what they say. Self-reported claims are unreliable, as are user speculations about future behavior.

Flash Accessibility: Making Web-Based Functionality Easier for Users With Disabilities Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-10-14 useit.com

Flash designs are easier for users with disabilities to use when designers combine visual and textual presentations, minimize incessant movement, decrease spacing between related objects, and simplify features.

Flash Usability and Web-Based Applications Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-11-25 useit.com

In usability tests of 46 Flash applications, we identified several basic issues related to Web-based functionality's ephemeral nature. Some findings restate old truths about GUIs; others reflect the Net's new status as nexus of the user experience.

Flash: 99% Bad Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-10-29 useit.com

Although multimedia has its role on the Web, current Flash technology tends to discourage usability for three reasons: it makes bad design more likely, it breaks with the Web's fundamental interaction style, and it consumes resources that would be better spent enhancing a site's core value.

Flexible Usability Testing Tips Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-08-31 NNgroup.com

Observe a greater range of site features when tasks change as client questions are answered and as tasks are tweaked or created for individual participants.

Form Design Quick Fix: Group Form Elements Effectively Using White Space
Marieke McCloskey 2013-11-03 NNgroup.com

Improve the layout of your online forms by placing form labels near the associated text field and by grouping similar fields.

Formal Usability Report vs. Quick Findings Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-04-25 useit.com

Formal reports are the most common way of documenting usability studies, but informal reports are faster to produce and are often a better choice.

Forms vs. Applications Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-09-19 useit.com

Once an online form goes beyond two screenfulls, it's often a sign that the underlying functionality is better supported by an application, which offers a more interactive user experience.

Four Bad Web Designs Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-04-14 useit.com

Bad content, bad links, bad navigation, bad category pages... which is worst for business? In these examples, bad content takes the prize for costing the company the most money.

Four Dangerous Navigation Approaches that Can Increase Cognitive Strain
Jen Cardello 2013-09-28 NNgroup.com

Some navigation implementations risk pushing users into a state of cognitive strain which lessens the likelihood of them taking desirable actions.

Frames Suck Most of the Time Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-12 useit.com

frames, usability, hypertext, navigation, Web pages, unified conceptual model, atomic unit of Web content

Fresh vs. Familiar: How Aggressively to Redesign Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-09-21 useit.com

Users hate change, so it's usually best to stay with a familiar design and evolve it gradually. In the long run, however, incrementalism eventually destroys cohesiveness, calling for a new UI architecture.

Functionality Apps vs. Content Apps: Open New Windows? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-10-15 useit.com

Applets are divided into two categories: functionality applets that need to open in a new window and content applets that should stay on the browser page.

Gateway Pages Prevent PDF Shock Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-07-28 useit.com

Spare your users the misery of being dumped into PDF files without warning. Create special gateway pages that summarize the contents of big documents and guide users gently into the PDF morass.

Generic Commands Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-10-29 useit.com

Applications can give users access to a richer feature set by using the same few commands to achieve many related functions.

Global Web: Driving the International Network Economy Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-04-19 useit.com

Global use of websites leads to international usability problems and coping with the levels of Internet maturity in different countries; many of which are gaining rapidly

Graceful Degradation of Scalable Internet Services Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-10-31 useit.com

Specialized Internet applications will return to provide richer UIs than are possible in browsers, but browsers will remain and new, smaller devices will arise, so content and features must work across three levels of sophistication. WAP will fail.

Growing a Business Website: Fix the Basics First Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-03-20 useit.com

Clear content, simple navigation, and answers to customer questions have the biggest impact on business value. Advanced technology matters much less.

Guesses vs. Data as Basis for Design Recommendations Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-06-08 useit.com

Even the tiniest amount of empirical facts (say, observing 2 users) vastly improves the probability of making correct UI design decisions.

Guidelines for Multimedia on the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1995-12 useit.com

Hardware Specs vs. User Experience Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-11-05 useit.com

Product quality has to be judged in the context of human tasks, and reviews should emphasize real use -- not raw numbers.

HealthCare.gov's Account Setup: 10 Broken Usability Guidelines
Jen Cardello 2013-10-27 NNgroup.com

HealthCare.gov's account setup process is unnecessarily complex and may be contributing to backend technology failures.

High-Cost Usability Sometimes Makes Sense Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-11-05 useit.com

Computing the net present value (NPV) lets you estimate the most profitable level of usability investment. For big projects, expensive usability can pay off.

History has a Lesson for HotJava Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1995-06 useit.com

Home Page Design Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-05-12 useit.com

A company's homepage is its face to the world and the starting point for most user visits. Improving your homepage multiplies the entire website's business value, so following key guidelines for homepage usability is well worth the investment.

Homepage Design Changes Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-09-12 useit.com

Web design is stabilizing; the average homepage is only about 40% different than it was a year before. (Corresponding to 3 years between complete redesigns.)

Homepage Real Estate Allocation Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-02-10 useit.com

On average, sample sites evenly distributed valuable screen space between content, navigation, fluff, blank areas, and system overhead. Areas of user interest should occupy more than the current 39%.

Homepage Real Estate Allocation
Jakob Nielsen 2013-11-16 NNgroup.com

Websites spend too little homepage space on content of interest to users and fail to utilize modern screen sizes. It's worse now than it was 12 years ago :-(

Horizontal Attention Leans Left Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-04-06 useit.com

Web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites profitable.

How Little Do Users Read? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-05-06 useit.com

On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.

How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-09-12 useit.com

Users often leave Web pages in 10-20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people's attention for much longer because visit-durations follow a negative Weibull distribution.

How Many Test Users in a Usability Study? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-06-04 useit.com

The answer is 5, except when it's not. Most arguments for using more test participants are wrong, but some tests should be bigger and some smaller.

How Much Bandwidth is Enough? A Tbps! Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1995-11 useit.com

Human Body as Touchscreen Replacement Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-07-22 NNgroup.com

When you touch your own body, you feel exactly what you touch -- better feedback than any external device. And you never forget to bring your body.

Hyped Web Stories Are Irrelevant Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-04-03 useit.com

The fads and big deals that get the press coverage are not important for running a workhorse website. To serve your customers, it's far better to emphasize simplicity and quality than to chase buzzwords.

IA Task Failures Remain Costly Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-04-16 useit.com

Task success is up substantially compared with usability statistics from 2004. Bad information architecture causes most of the remaining user failures.

Improving Usability Guideline Compliance Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-06-24 useit.com

Over the last 1.5 years, the average compliance with established usability guidelines increased by 4%. If we can sustain this level of improvement, we'll reach the ideal of 90% guideline compliance in 2017.

In Defense of Print Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-02 useit.com

In the Future, We'll All Be Harry Potter Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-12-09 useit.com

The world of magic is a world where inanimate objects come alive; it's as if they had computational power, sensors, awareness, and connectivity.

Incompetent Email Marketing = Lost Future Opportunities Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-10-31 useit.com

Lack of personalization made an email newsletter completely useless to the recipient, damaging long-term customer relationship efforts.

Incompetent Research Skills Curb Users' Problem Solving Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-04-11 useit.com

Users increasingly rely on individual pages listed by search engines instead of finding better ways to tackle problems.

Increasing Returns for Websites Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-04-15 useit.com

How much better is it to be a *big* website? Large sites can use their own hyperlinks to drive even more traffic, but small sites generate more value through focused content and microtransactions

Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-06-30 useit.com

The easier it is to find places with good information, the less time users will spend visiting any individual website. This is one of many conclusions that follow from analyzing how people optimize their behavior in online information systems.

Information Pollution Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-08-11 useit.com

Excessive word count and worthless details are making it harder for people to extract useful information. The more you say, the more people tune out your message.

Informational Articles Must Ask For the Order Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-08-23 useit.com

Unless you have explicit links to product pages from article content, users who visit articles directly from search engines might never realize that you sell related products.

Interaction cost: Definition Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Raluca Budiu 2013-08-31 NNgroup.com

The interaction cost is the sum of efforts "mental and physical" that the users must deploy in interacting with a site in order to reach their goals.

Interaction Elasticity Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-12-15 useit.com

Usage goes down as interaction costs increase. User motivation determines how fast demand drops, following an elasticity curve.

Interesting Facts Make Web Pages Compelling Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-06-09 NNgroup.com

Users hunt for facts online, so factually rich content will attract readers and keep their attention.

Interface Standards and Design Creativity Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-08-22 useit.com

Standards ensure a consistent vocabulary, but don't limit designers' freedom (and responsibility) in deeper design issues. Also: Guidelines for writing design standards.

International Sites: Minimum Requirements Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-08-08 useit.com

Users from other countries have special needs related to entry fields for names and addresses, measurements and dates, and information about regional product standards.

International Usability: Big Stuff the Same, Details Differ Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-06-06 useit.com

User testing on 3 continents confirmed that the main usability guidelines hold worldwide, but many other considerations exist to better support international users.

International Web Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-08 useit.com

An Alertbox column.

Internet Activity Bias Causes Lumpy User Behavior Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-09-01 NNgroup.com

Dramatic differences in how much people use the web on different days can distort simplistic interpretations of site analytics.

Internet Client Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-04-30 useit.com

Napster, IE 5 for the Mac, and Yahoo FinanceVision introduce specialized Internet UIs beyond the standard page viewing that had been unchanged since Mosaic.

Internet Hard to Use for Novice Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-04-01 useit.com

Examples from tech support calls show the immense difficulties novice users have in using the Internet: be prepared if you field apps intended for broad usage

Internet Stock Valuation and Future User Characteristics Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-01-17 useit.com

Unique visitors are a poor measure of user loyalty. Also, future users are late adopters and not likely to all patronize current popular sites. So beware of over-valuing Internet stock.

Interviewing Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-07-26 useit.com

Despite many weaknesses, interviews are a valuable method for exploratory user research.

Intranet Design Annual: 10 Best Intranets of 2002 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-09-03 useit.com

This year's winning intranet designs emphasized integrated support of international offices, long development times (two years on average), one-stop start-up screens and single sign-in, and usability testing of interfaces for content contributors.

Intranet Information Architecture (IA) Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-11-26 useit.com

In analyzing 56 intranets, we found many common top-level categories, labels, and navigation designs, but ultimately, the diversity was too great to recommend a single IA.

Intranet Portal Usability and Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-03-31 useit.com

Internet portals are virtually dead, but a portal approach can tame the unruly chaos on internal company networks. Intranet portals overcome many Internet portal limitations, and might be the best hope for productivity and a unified user experience.

intranet portals Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-04-04 useit.com

An intranet should have a single home page that integrates a directory hierarchy, search, and news. Most intranets are chaotic, under-funded, and lack design standards, causing huge losses in employee productivity.

Intranet Portals: Personalization Hot, Mobile Weak, Governance Essential Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-07-18 useit.com

19 new case studies of enterprise portals find slow growth in new features; the focus is on robust integration and formalizing governance.

Intranet Social Features Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-03-02 NNgroup.com

Employee collaboration and open communication are now business drivers in many companies, but social enterprise features are often poorly integrated with the rest of the intranet.

Intranet Usability Shows Huge Advances Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-10-09 useit.com

Measured usability improved by 44% compared to our last large-scale intranet study. The new research identified 5 times the previous number of intranet design guidelines.

Intranet Usability: The Trillion-Dollar Question Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-11-11 useit.com

The average mid-sized company could gain $5 million per year in employee productivity by improving its intranet design to the top quartile level of a cross-company intranet usability study. The return on investment? One thousand percent or more.

Intranet Users Stuck at Low Productivity Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-12-03 useit.com

Although intranet design is improving, it hasn't kept pace with increased complexity in enterprise requirements, so measured usability is down slightly.

intranet vs. Internet Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-09-15 useit.com

Your intranet should have different visual style and navigational architecture from your website since users, tasks, and information all differ. Intranets should be managed diversity; neither totalitarian nor anarchies

Investor Relations (IR) on Corporate Websites Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-05-25 useit.com

Individual investors are intimidated by overly complex IR sites and need simple summaries of financial data. Both individual and professional investors want the company's own story and investment vision.

Involving Stakeholders in User Testing Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-05-24 useit.com

Besides usability specialists, all design team members should observe usability. It's also good to invite executives. Although biased conclusions are possible, they're far outweighed by the benefits of increased buy-in and empathy.

iOS 7 User-Experience Appraisa
Raluca Budiu 2013-10-12 NNgroup.com

Flat design hides calls to action, and swiping around the edges can interfere with carousels and scrolling.

iPad and Kindle Reading Speeds Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-07-02 useit.com

A study of people reading long-form text on tablets finds higher reading speeds than in the past, but they're still slower than reading print.

iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-05-10 useit.com

iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.

iPad Usability: Year One Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-05-23 useit.com

iPad apps are much improved, but new usability problems have emerged, such as swipe ambiguity and navigation overload.

iPhone Apps Need Low Starting Hurdles Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-02-10 useit.com

Most mobile applications are used only intermittently, so they must be especially easy during initial use. In particular, upfront registration shouldn't be required before users experience an app's benefits.

Is Navigation Useful? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-01-09 useit.com

Web users go straight for content and ignore navigation areas. Limited structural navigation and local navigation still help, but general navigation should be avoided and generic links minimized to the truly useful.

Japanese Products Map the Mobile Road Ahead Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-04-29 useit.com

Japan is now shipping a wide variety of new Internet-connected devices. Among the highlights are new mobile photography units like Eggy, and i-mode telephones with liberating two-dimensional controls.

Keep Online Surveys Short Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-02-02 useit.com

To ensure high response rates and avoid misleading survey results, keep your surveys short and ensure that your questions are well written and easy to answer.

Kids' Corner: Web Usability for Children Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Shuli Gilutz 2002-04-16 useit.com

Our usability study of kids found that they are as easily stumped by confusing websites as adults. Unlike adults, however, kids tend to view ads as content, and click accordingly. They also like colorful designs, but demand simple text and navigation.

Kids' Corner: Website Usability for Children Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-04-14 useit.com

Kill the 53-Day Meme Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1995-09 useit.com

Kindle 2 Usability Review Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-03-09 useit.com

Amazon's new e-book reader offers print-level readability and shines for reading fiction, but it has awkward interaction design and poor support for non-linear content.

Kindle Content Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-03-16 useit.com

Writing for Kindle is like writing for print, the Web, and mobile devices combined; optimal usability means optimizing content for each platform's special characteristics.

Kindle Fire HD: Much Better Than Original Kindle Fire Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-12-19 NNgroup.com

Amazon's new Kindle Fire has much better usability than last year's model -- and the 7-inch tablet beats the 9-inch version.

Kindle Fire Usability Findings Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-12-05 useit.com

Mobile web sites work best on the 7-inch tablet. Users had great trouble touching the correct items on full sites, where UI elements are too small on the Fire screen.

Kinect Gestural UI: First Impressions Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-12-27 useit.com

Inconsistent gestures, invisible commands, overlooked warnings, awkward dialog confirmations. But fun to play.

Lack of Navigation Support in v.4.0 Browsers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-11-01 useit.com

Four years of progress in Web browsers have given us more fancy presentation but almost no improvements in helping users navigate the Web and getting the information they need.

Let Users Control Font Size Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-08-19 useit.com

Tiny text tyrannizes users by dramatically reducing task throughput. IE4 had a great UI that let users easily change font sizes; let's get this design back in the next generation of browsers.

Life-Long Computer Skills Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-02-26 useit.com

Schools should teach deep, strategic computer insights that can't be learned from reading a manual.

Link List Color on Intranets Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-05-13 useit.com

Lists of links are an intermediate case between content-embedded links and menu items. Showing listed links in blue or in the site's main link color is the recommended design - and the one most intranets follow.

Link Titles Help Users Predict Where They Are Going Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-01-11 useit.com

Some browsers pop up a short explanation of a link *before* the user selects it. Such link titles can give users a preview of where the link will lead, improve their navigation, and reduce disorientation.

Linkrot Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-06-14 useit.com

6% of the Web's links are broken, diminishing its usability. All old URLs should be kept working indefinitely - otherwise you throw away business.

Location Finders and Store Locators Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-07-08 useit.com

When we asked users to find a nearby store, office, dealership, or other outlet based on information provided at a parent company's website, users succeeded only 63% of the time. On average, the 10 sites we studied complied with less than half of our 21 usability guidelines for locator design.

Location is Irrelevant for Usability Studies Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-04-30 useit.com

You get the same insights regardless of where you conduct user testing, so there's no reason to test in multiple cities. When a city is dominated by your own industry, however, you should definitely test elsewhere.

Loneliness and the Internet Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-02-20 useit.com

Studies of the social impact of the Internet must consider the changing lifestyle of the new economy and not relate solely to industrial-age concepts.

Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-11-12 useit.com

Information foraging shows how to calculate your content strategy's costs and benefits. A mixed diet that combines brief overviews and comprehensive coverage is often best.

Low-End Media for User Empowerment Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-04-21 useit.com

Fancy media on websites typically fails user testing. Simple text and clear photos not only communicate better with users, they also enhance users' feeling of control and thus support the Web's mission as an instant gratification environment.

Low-Literacy Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-03-14 useit.com

Lower-literacy users exhibit very different reading behaviors than higher-literacy users: they plow text rather than scan it, and they miss page elements due to a narrower field of view.

Loyalty on the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-08-01 useit.com

Loyal users who return to a site many times are more valuable than 'site tourists' who simply check out a few pages. Loyalty is built by fresh content, update notifications, and customization and other ways of rewarding repeat visits

Macintosh: 25 Years Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-02-02 useit.com

Although its individual features weren't new, the Mac offered integration, the expectation of a GUI, and interface consistency. Is the iPhone the Mac of mobile?

Mailing List Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-08-20 useit.com

Mailing list content must be ultra-short. Provide separate email addresses for subscribing and unsubscribing and include info on how to get off in every mailing list message. Improved usability increased subscriptions by 128% in one case study.

Making the Physical Environment Interactive Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-08-05 useit.com

Tiny motors and sensors will make physical objects interactive and create a renaissance for gestural user interfaces. As interface design moves from the screen to the material world, the need for simple, easy to use designs will only increase.

Making Usability Findings Actionable Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Amy Schade 2013-09-14 NNgroup.com

For usability testing to be valuable, study findings must clearly identify issues and help the team move toward design solutions.

Making Web Advertisements Work Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-05-05 useit.com

Web users are highly goal-driven, and ads that interfere with their goals will be ignored. To succeed, ads must work with the medium, as well as with the user's aims and mindset.

Marginalia of Web Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-11 useit.com

Mastery, Mystery, and Misery: The Ideologies of Web Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-08-30 useit.com

Simple, unobtrusive designs that support users are successful because they abide by the Web's nature -- and they make people feel good.

Medical Usability: How to Kill Patients Through Bad Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-04-11 useit.com

A field study identified twenty-two ways that automated hospital systems can result in the wrong medication being dispensed to patients. Most of these flaws are classic usability problems that have been understood for decades.

Mega Drop-Down Navigation Menus Work Well Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-03-23 useit.com

Big, 2-dimensional drop-down panels group navigation options to eliminate scrolling and use typography, icons, and tooltips to explain users' choices.

Mega-Menus Gone Wrong Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-11-16 useit.com

Big 2-D drop-downs can facilitate site navigation -- if they're properly designed. Two examples illustrate some mega-menu usability pitfalls.

Mental Models Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-10-18 useit.com

What users believe they know about a UI strongly impacts how they use it. Mismatched mental models are common, especially with designs that try something new.

Mental Models For Search Are Getting Firmer Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-05-09 useit.com

Users now have precise expectations for the behavior of search. Designs that invoke this mental model but work differently are confusing.

Metcalfe's Law in Reverse Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-07-25 useit.com

Partitioning the Web into N unlinked or otherwise isolated parts will reduce its overall value by a factor of N. A proprietary AOL instant messaging system will be worth only 4% of the full potential, and 1/3 will be completely lost.

Microcontainers: Long-Term Web Change Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-05-31 useit.com

Treating the Web as a strategic industry driver will lead to a patent bonanza where companies sew up entire ways of doing business. Distribution networks are discussed as one example of such a change

Middle-Aged Users' Declining Web Performance Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-03-31 useit.com

Between the ages of 25 and 60, people's ability to use websites declines by 0.8% per year - mostly because they spend more time per page, but also because of navigation difficulties.

Mini-IA: Structuring the Information About a Concept Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-06-21 useit.com

In a miniature information architecture, coverage of a single topic is chunked into units that are connected through simple navigation.

Misconceptions About Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-09-08 useit.com

Misconceptions about usability's expense, the time it involves, and its creative impact prevent companies from getting crucial user data, as does the erroneous belief that existing customer-feedback methods are a valid driver for interface design.

Misleading Results from Study Methodology Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-02-21 useit.com

Details in measurement methodology make the results of a recent market research study irrelevant for predicting real user behavior on the Web.

Mobile Content Is Twice as Difficult Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-02-28 useit.com

When reading from an iPhone-sized screen, comprehension scores for complex Web content were 48% of desktop monitor scores.

Mobile Content: If in Doubt, Leave It Out Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-10-10 useit.com

Writing for mobile readers requires even harsher editing than writing for the Web. Mobile use implies less patience for filler copy.

Mobile Devices Will Soon Be Useful Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-09-16 useit.com

New mobile devices and services are more realistic and useful than last year's models, and will likely expand mobile device adoption. Design usability and simplicity are key, particularly for the automotive market where complexity can be dangerous.

Mobile Devices: One Generation From Useful Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-08-18 useit.com

New mobile devices show a huge improvement over previous generations, but they're still not good enough to score a real win. To get there, we need both PC-integrated applications and specialized mobile services rather than repurposed website content.

Mobile Email Newsletters Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-10-22 useit.com

Mobile use strengthens email marketing's benefits by offering ubiquitous newsletter access, but it also introduces new usability limitations for template design.

Mobile Intranet Design Case Studies Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-08-19 NNgroup.com

Supporting field staff and mission-critical apps are core reasons to take enterprise computing mobile, but users also value access to news and internal social networks.

Mobile Phones: Europe's Next Minitel? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-01-07 useit.com

Europe's cellular phone system is far superior to that in the United States. However, telephones will not be the platform for the mobile Internet. Given this, Europe's advantage may in fact be an obstacle to real innovations, as France's experience with Minitel shows.

Mobile Site vs. Full Site Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-04-10 useit.com

Good mobile user experience requires a different design than what's needed to satisfy desktop users. Two designs, two sites, and cross-linking to make it all work.

Mobile Sites vs. Apps: The Coming Strategy Shift Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-02-13 useit.com

Mobile apps currently have better usability than mobile sites, but forthcoming changes will eventually make a mobile site the superior strategy.

Mobile Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-07-20 useit.com

In user testing, website use on mobile devices got very low scores, especially when users accessed 'full' sites that weren't designed for mobile.

Mobile Usability for Cats: Essential Design Principles for Felines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-04-01 NNgroup.com

Feline users require special considerations, including larger tap target zones for paws, continual animation, and audible vocalization.

Mobile Usability Update Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-09-26 useit.com

The user experience of mobile websites and apps has improved since our last research, but still has far to go. A dedicated mobile site is a must, and apps get even higher usability scores.

Mobile UX Sharpens Usability Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-11-07 useit.com

Many guidelines are similar for mobile and desktop design, but their mobile interpretation is much more unforgiving.

Mobile: Native Apps, Web Apps, and Hybrid Apps Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Raluca Budiu 2013-09-14 NNgroup.com

Native and hybrid apps are installed in an app store; web apps are mobile-optimized webpages that look like an app. Hybrid apps use app-embedded browsers.

Most Hated Advertising Techniques Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-12-06 useit.com

Studies of how people react to online advertisements have identified several design techniques that impact the user experience very negatively.

Mud-Throwing Theory of Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-04-02 useit.com

Instead of rushing new websites to a premature launch that will scare away your best customers forever, it is better to run a few fast usability studies in the beginning of the project.

Multiple-User Simultaneous Testing: MUST Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-10-15 useit.com

Testing 5-10 users at once lets you conduct large-scale usability testing and still meet your deadlines.

Myth of the Genius Designer Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-05-29 useit.com

Having a good designer doesn't eliminate the need for a systematic usability process. Risk reduction and quality improvement both require user testing and other usability methods.

New Devices Augur Decent Mobile User Experience Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-09-17 useit.com

The current generation of mobile Internet products and services has miserable usability (as shown at the DEMOmobile 2000 conference). New devices like Blackberry, Modo, and a prototype Microsoft telephone do better.

Newsletter Usability: Can a Professional Publisher Do Better? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-10-11 useit.com

The Washington Post's email newsletter earns a high usability score. It's particularly good at setting users' expectations before they subscribe, though the unsubscribe interface has some problems.

Nielsen Norman Group: The First Decade Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-08-08 useit.com

Started by Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen in 1998, the company is now 10 years old and has a long list of accomplishments and a much bigger team.

Nielsen's Law of Internet Bandwidth Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-04-05 useit.com

High-end users' bandwidth grows by 50% per year, meaning that personal T-1 lines will be common by 2003. Until then, minimalism will remain the dominant goal of Web design

Non-Profit Organization Websites: Increasing Donations and Volunteering Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-02-16 useit.com

Giving money on charity websites is 7% harder than spending money on e-commerce sites. Donating physical items is even harder. For non-profit websites, social media is secondary; the top priority is to write clearer content.

Novice vs. Expert Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-02-06 useit.com

Web usability has focused on ease of learning for the new visitor. While learnability remains important, it is time to also consider expert performance.

Official Olympic Website: UI Silver -- but UX DQ Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-07-30 useit.com

Page design itself scores 15% higher than the 2002 Olympics site. But a disjointed overall Internet presence leads to an intolerable overall user experience.

Offshore Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-09-16 useit.com

To save costs, some companies are outsourcing Web projects to countries with cheap labor. Unfortunately, these countries lack strong usability traditions and their developers have limited access -- if any -- to good usability data from the target users.

OK-Cancel or Cancel-OK? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-05-27 useit.com

Should the OK button come before or after the Cancel button? Following platform conventions is more important than suboptimizing an individual dialog box.

One Billion Internet Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-12-19 useit.com

The Internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs.

Open New Windows for PDF and other Non-Web Documents Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-08-29 useit.com

When using PC-native file formats such as PDF or spreadsheets, users feel like they're interacting with a PC application. Because users are no longer browsing a website, they shouldn't be given a browser UI.

Optimizing a Screen for Mobile Use Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-03-28 useit.com

A single mobile screen with almost no features still required 10 design changes to meet usability guidelines for mobile websites.

Outliers and Luck in User Performance Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-03-06 useit.com

6% of task attempts are extremely slow and constitute outliers in measured user performance. These sad incidents are caused by bad luck that designers can -- and should -- eradicate.

Overloaded vs. Generic Commands Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-12-19 useit.com

Overloading different outcomes on similar commands can be confusing. Using the same command for multiple actions enhances usability if the results are conceptually the same.

Paper Prototyping: Get User Data *Before* Coding Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-04-14 useit.com

With a paper prototype, you can user test early design ideas at an extremely low cost. Doing so lets you fix usability problems before you waste money implementing something that doesn't work.

Parallel & Iterative Design + Competitive Testing = High Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-01-18 useit.com

3 methods for increasing UX quality by exploring and testing diverse design ideas work even better when you use them together.

Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-10-09 useit.com

In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

Passive Voice Is Redeemed For Web Headings Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-10-22 useit.com

Active voice is best for most Web content, but using passive voice can let you front-load important keywords in headings, blurbs, and lead sentences. This enhances scannability and thus SEO effectiveness.

PDF - Avoid for On-Screen Reading Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-06-10 useit.com

Forcing users to browse PDF files makes usability approximately 300% worse compared to HTML pages. Only use PDF for documents that users are likely to print. In those cases, following six basic guidelines will minimize usability problems.

PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-07-14 useit.com

Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text blobs that are optimized for print and unpleasant to read and navigate online. PDF is good for printing, but that's it. Don't use it for online presentation.

Persuasive Design and Web Credibility: Review of Captology Book Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-03-03 useit.com

Review of B.J. Fogg's new Persuasive Technology book, which provides useful principles on how to think about creating persuasive design, but rarely gives detailed design guidelines. The exception is a section on enhancing website credibility.

Photos as Web Content Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-11-01 useit.com

Users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to 'jazz up' Web pages.

Poor Code Quality Contaminates Mental Models Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-10-28 useit.com

Software bugs and system crashes result in huge productivity losses and undermine users' ability to form good models of how computers work. Website designers can help improve user confidence by prioritizing quality and robustness over features and the latest technology.

Powers of 10: Time Scales in User Experience Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-10-05 useit.com

From 0.1 seconds to 10 years or more, user interface design has many different timeframes, and each has its own particular usability issues.

PR on Websites: Increasing Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-03-10 useit.com

Compared with a similar 2001 study, a new study of journalists as they looked for information on corporate websites' PR areas showed significant usability improvements: a 5% higher success rate and 15% increased guidelines compliance.

PR on Websites: Press Area Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-01-20 useit.com

As 3 studies of journalists show, they use the Web as a major research tool, exhibit high search dominance, and are impatient with bloated sites that don't serve their needs or list a PR contact.

Predictions for the Web in 1998 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-01-01 useit.com

The Web will become more international (but will overseas sites or American sites benefit?), sites will outsource services, content will adapt to usage patterns in real time.

Predictions for the Web in 1999 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-12-27 useit.com

Mobile access becomes 3rd Killer App for the Internet, Web standards rebound, customer service is automated, e-commerce patents are issued, and the Web has its own Y2K problems

Predictions for Year 2000 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-12-26 useit.com

Micropayments will start with value-added content; mobile access; advice and sales become unbundled and physical experience environments may launch.

Print Design vs. Web Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-01-24 useit.com

Anything that is a great print design is likely to be a lousy web design. The big canvas size and controlled layout make print visually superior; Web interaction is more engaging.

Prioritize: Good Content Bubbles to the Top Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-10-17 useit.com

If everything is emphasized, then nothing stands out. Prioritized design helps users focus on the most promising choices first.

Productivity and Screen Size Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-10-23 useit.com

A study of the benefits of big monitors fails on two accounts: it didn't test realistic tasks, and it didn't test realistic use. Productivity is a key argument for workplace usability, but you must measure it carefully.

Productivity in the Service Economy Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-03-29 useit.com

Yes, it is possible for white-collar workers to work smarter and become more productive. While intranet usability provides substantial initial gains, workflow usability can go much further and will save millions of jobs.

Profit Maximization vs. User Loyalty Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-03-05 useit.com

Instead of maximizing the profits from an individual visit it is better to encourage loyal users and establish non-monetary differentiation and frequent-user programs.

Progress in Usability: Fast or Slow? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-02-22 useit.com

Over the past decade, usability improved by 6% per year. This is a faster rate than most other fields, but much slower than technology advances might have predicted.

Progressive Disclosure Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-12-04 useit.com

Progressive disclosure defers advanced or rarely used features to a secondary screen, making applications easier to learn and less error-prone.

Protecting the User's Mailbox Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-03-17 useit.com

Email is a powerful way to reach customers, but overdoing it is risky. Let users know up front that you'll respect their mailboxes. Otherwise, they won't give their email addresses, and you'll lose a unique channel for marketing and customer service.

Putting A/B Testing in Its Place Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-08-15 useit.com

Measuring the live impact of design changes on key business metrics is valuable, but often creates a focus on short-term improvements. This near-term view neglects bigger issues that only qualitative studies can find.

QA (quality assurance) & UX (user experience) Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-02-17 NNgroup.com

Quality assurance impacts the user experience: when things don't work, users question their understanding and develop superstitions and inefficient workarounds.

Quantitative Studies: How Many Users to Test? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-06-26 useit.com

When collecting usability metrics, testing 20 users typically offers a reasonably tight confidence interval.

R.I.P. WYSIWYG - Results-Oriented UI Coming Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-10-10 useit.com

Macintosh-style interaction design has reached its limits. A new paradigm, called results-oriented UI, might well be the way to empower users in the future.

Reading on the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-10-01 useit.com

Users don't read Web pages, they scan. Highlighting and concise writing improved measured usability 47-58%. Marketese imposed a cognitive burden on users and was disliked.

Recruiting Test Participants for Usability Studies Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-01-20 useit.com

Easy test user recruiting is crucial to an effective usability process. The average per-user cost is $171, but varies greatly depending on location and the targeted profession.

Reduce Bounce Rates: Fight for the Second Click Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-06-30 useit.com

Different traffic sources imply different reasons for why visitors might immediately leave your site. Design to keep deep-link followers engaged through additional pageviews.

Reduce Redundancy: Decrease Duplicated Design Decisions Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-06-09 useit.com

User interface complexity increases when a single feature or hypertext link is presented in multiple ways. Users rarely understand duplicates as such, and often waste time repeating efforts or visiting the same page twice by mistake.

Regulatory Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-09-03 useit.com

Regulatory agencies should not transfer their rules from the print world unchanged to Web content that is being read in a different manner. Instead, regulations should concern the usability of the actual information and whether users understand it.

Relationships on the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-01 useit.com

Release 2.0 Review Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-11-15 useit.com

Jakob Nielsen reviews Esther Dyson's book Release 2.0: useless, yet ultra-strategic; a tool to envision the network economy and the Web's eventual effect on our lives.

Remote Control Anarchy Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-06-07 useit.com

The six remote controls required for a simple home theater illustrate the problems caused by complexity and inconsistency in user interfaces.

Remote Usability Tests: Moderated and Unmoderated
Amy Schade 2013-10-12 NNgroup.com

Remote usability testing allows you to get customer insights when travel budgets are small, timeframes are tight, or test participants are hard to find.

Repurposing vs. Optimized Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-05-21 useit.com

It's cheap but degrading to reuse content and design across diverging media forms like print vs. online or desktop vs. mobile. Superior UX requires tight platform integration.

Reputation Management Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-02-08 useit.com

Reputation management is an alternative to branding: people can find useful content on the Web by relying on computationally processed quality ratings from other users.

Reputation Managers are Happening Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-09-05 useit.com

Epinions and Google join eBay in maintaining independent ratings of the quality of products, websites, and auction sellers, leading to better customer service and helping users make informed buying decisions.

Request Marketing Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-10-15 useit.com

The Web must reverse the traditional direction of marketing, and although once a viable paradigm permission marketing is no longer sufficient. Instead of a company generating messages when it wants to reach its customers, with request marketing, the company sends only messages that users ask for. Request marketing is especially suited to the mobile Internet, where intrusive messages are ultra aggravating.

Reset / Cancel Button Considered Harmful Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-04-16 useit.com

Most Web forms would have improved usability if the Reset button was removed. Cancel buttons are also often of little value on the Web.

Retaining Key Staff Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-03-04 useit.com

Never listen to what people say in response to a survey: asking high-tech employees what will keep them in their jobs provides very different answers than the factors that actually drive retention.

Return on Investment (ROI) for Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-01-07 useit.com

Development projects should spend 10% of their budget on usability. Following a usability redesign, websites increase desired metrics by 135% on average; intranets improve slightly less.

Reviving Advanced Hypertext Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-01-03 useit.com

To manage a huge, worldwide information space, users need proven features like fat links, typed links, integrated search and browsing, overview maps, big-screen designs, and physical hypertext.

Risks of Quantitative Studies Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-03-01 useit.com

Number fetishism leads usability studies astray by focusing on statistical analyses that are often false, biased, misleading, or overly narrow. Better to emphasize insights and qualitative research.

Salary Survey of User Experience Professionals Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-05-27 useit.com

A survey of 1,078 user experience professionals finds that usability specialists make more money than designers and writers in the same field. In all three areas, salaries are highest in the U.S., lower in Canada and Asia, and much lower in Europe and Australia.

Salary Trends for Usability Professionals Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-05-08 useit.com

Over the last several years, entry-level salaries have dropped, while pay for experienced usability staff has been more stable.

Sales Paradox Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-08-06 useit.com

Changing to a new fulfillment provider caused a website to lose all sales. Reason: lower usability. In the future, reputation managers and web wallets will even the playing field and remove Amazon's temporary advantage as the fulfillment provider of choice.

Saying No: How to Handle Missing Features Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-01-23 useit.com

Instead of making users wander indefinitely and frustratingly around a site looking for something that's just not there, tell them if it lacks a frequently requested feature

Screen Resolution and Page Layout Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-07-31 useit.com

Optimize Web pages for 1024x768, but use a liquid layout that stretches well for any resolution, from 800x600 to 1280x1024.

Scrolling and Attention Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-03-22 useit.com

Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, they allocate only 20% of their attention below the fold.

Scrolling and Scrollbars Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-07-11 useit.com

Despite posing well-known risks, websites continue to feature poorly designed scrollbars. Among the ongoing problems that result are frustrated users, accessibility challenges, and missed content.

Search Engines as Leeches on the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-01-09 useit.com

Search engines extract too much of the Web's value, leaving too little for the websites that actually create the content. Liberation from search dependency is a strategic imperative for both websites and software vendors.

Search Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-07-15 useit.com

Search is the primary interface to the Web for many users. Search should be global (not scoped to a subsite) and available from every page; booleans should be made intimidating since users usually use them wrong

Search: Visible and Simple Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-05-13 useit.com

Search is the user's lifeline for mastering complex websites. The best designs offer a simple search box on the home page and play down advanced search and scoping.

Security & Human Factors Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-11-26 useit.com

A big lie of computer security is that security improves as password complexity increases. In reality, users simply write down difficult passwords, leaving the system vulnerable. Security is better increased by designing for how people actually behave.

SEO and Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-08-13 useit.com

What makes a website good will also give it a high SERP rank, but overly tricky search engine optimization can undermine the user experience.

Serif vs. Sans-Serif Fonts for HD Screens Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-07-02 useit.com

Decent computer screens with pixel densities of 220 PPI or more lead to new usability guidelines for on-screen typography.

Short-Term Memory and Web Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-12-07 useit.com

The human brain is not optimized for the abstract thinking and data memorization that websites often demand. Many usability guidelines are dictated by cognitive limitations.

Should Designers and Developers Do Usability? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-06-25 useit.com

Having a specialized usability person is best, but smaller design teams can still benefit when designers do their own user testing and other usability work.

Should You Copy a Famous Site's Design? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-08-23 useit.com

Although successful websites typically have high usability, average sites can hurt their business by copying design elements that don't work well in other contexts.

Show Numbers as Numerals When Writing for Online Readers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-04-16 useit.com

It's better to use '23' than 'twenty-three' to catch users' eyes when they scan Web pages for facts, according to eyetracking data.

Show Prices for Common Scenarios Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-04-10 useit.com

B2B sites often have overly complex pricing structures or can't show prices at all. To help prospects with early research, list representative cases and their prices.

Site Map Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-01-06 useit.com

Most site maps fail to convey multiple levels of the site's information architecture. In usability tests, users often overlook site maps or can't find them. Complexity is also a problem: a map should be a map, not a navigational challenge of its own.

Site Map Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-09-02 useit.com

New user testing of site maps shows that they are still useful as a secondary navigation aide, and that they're much easier to use than they were during our research 7 years ago.

Situate Follow-Ups in Context Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-12-20 useit.com

Make new or follow-up information easily accessible from the location of the original information or transaction.

Slate Review Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-07 useit.com

Slate fails due to its inability to adjust to the online medium: too long articles, too little hypertext, scrolling home page (though redesigns have improved later issues)

Social Media Outsourcing Can Be Risky Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-09-08 useit.com

Hosting a company's content and services on 3rd-party social networking sites involves both tactical risks (lower usability) and strategic risks (less user loyalty).

Social Networking on Intranets Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-08-03 useit.com

Community features are spreading from 'Web 2.0' to 'Enterprise 2.0.' Research across 14 companies found that many are making productive use of social intranet features.

Stationary Mobility Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-03-18 useit.com

Mobile Internet access will free us from having to connect appliances to telephone jacks and will make smart devices much easier to install. In fact, they may not need a user interface at all, as exemplified by the Japanese i-pot.

Stop Password Masking Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-06-23 useit.com

Usability suffers when users type in passwords and the only feedback they get is a row of bullets. Typically, masking passwords doesn't even increase security, but it does cost you business due to login failures.

Store Finders and Locators Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-09-15 useit.com

Finding addresses and location information on company websites has gotten dramatically easier, but users increasingly turn to search engines first for this task.

Streams, Walls, and Feeds: Distributing Content Through Social Networks and RSS Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-10-12 useit.com

Users like the simplicity of messages that pass into oblivion over time, but were frequently frustrated by unscannable writing, overly frequent postings, and their inability to locate companies on social networks.

Strength of User Research Evidence Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-04-14 NNgroup.com

Usability findings derived from a broad base of diverse studies have higher credibility than those based on many users with a single stimulus.

Stuck With Old Browsers Until 2003 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-04-18 useit.com

Historical curves for the speed with which users upgrade to new browser versions suggest that sites must continue to support old browsers until the Year 2003.

Subsite Structure Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-09 useit.com

Success Rate: The Simplest Usability Metric Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-02-18 useit.com

In addition to being expensive, collecting usability metrics interferes with the goal of gathering qualitative insights to drive design decisions. As a compromise, you can measure users' ability to complete tasks. Success rates are easy to understand and represent usability's bottom line.

Supporting Multiple-Location Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-05-26 useit.com

About half of the users now access the Internet from more than one location. Despite the implications of this for service design, many systems assume that users remain bound to a single computer.

Tablet Usability: Findings from User Research Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-08-05 NNgroup.com

Flat design and improperly rescaled design are the main threats to tablet usability, followed by poor gestures and workflow.

Tabs, Used Right: The 13 Usability Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-09-17 useit.com

13 design guidelines for tab controls are all followed by Yahoo Finance, but usability suffers from AJAX overkill and difficult customization.

Tagline Blues: What's the Site About? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-07-22 useit.com

A website's tagline must explain what the company does and what makes it unique among competitors. Two questions can help you assess your own tagline: Would it work just as well for competitors? Would any company ever claim the opposite?

Talking-Head Video Is Boring Online Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-12-05 useit.com

Eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing.

Targeted Email Newsletters Show Continued Strength Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-02-17 useit.com

E-newsletters that are informative, convenient, and timely are often preferred over other media. However, a new study found that only 11% of newsletters were read thoroughly, so layout and content scannability are paramount.

Teenage Usability: Designing Teen-Targeted Websites Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-02-01 NNgroup.com

Teens are (over)confident in their web abilities, but they perform worse than adults. Lower reading levels, impatience, and undeveloped research skills reduce teens' task success and require simple, relatable sites.

Telephone as Web Metaphor Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-05-15 useit.com

The telephone is a better metaphor than television for thinking about the Web and its potential: the Web is a 1-to-1, narrowcast, low bandwidth medium that is user-driven and where everybody can publish content.

Ten Best Government Intranets Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-06-21 useit.com

Redesigning an intranet for usability often more than doubled the use of these award-winning designs from ten public-sector organizations.

Ten Best Intranets of 2006 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-01-23 useit.com

This year, we saw increased use of multimedia, e-learning, internal blogs, and mobile access. Winning companies also encouraged consistent design by emphasizing training for content contributors.

Ten Good Deeds in Web Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-10-03 useit.com

Ten design elements that would increase the usability of virtually all websites if only they were employed more widely.

Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-11-10 useit.com

Ten usability mistakes are made by about two-thirds of corporate websites. The prevalence of these errors alone warrants attention, especially since they appear on sites with significant investment in usable design.

Ten Steps for Cleaning Up Information Pollution Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-01-05 useit.com

Better prioritization, fewer interruptions, and concentrated information that's easy to find and manage helps people become more productive and stop wasting their colleagues' time.

Test-Taking Enhances Learning Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-01-31 useit.com

People remember much more after reading if they retrieve information about the text from memory. Quizzes are one way websites can help users remember more.

Testing Expert Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-01-25 useit.com

It's more difficult to conduct usability studies with experienced users than with novices, and the improvements are usually smaller. Still, improving expert performance is often worth the effort.

Testing Greeked Page Templates Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-05-17 useit.com

By turning all text into gibberish, a usability test can focus on whether the *layout* of a Web template helps users navigate and use the page.

The Case For Micropayments Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-01-25 useit.com

Micropayments prevent annoying Web ads and encourage site-design for users' needs. Subscription fees discourage new users, search engines, and links.

The Importance of Consistency in Cross-Channel User Experiences
Janelle Estes 2013-10-27 NNgroup.com

A consistent user experience, regardless of channel, is one of the 4 key elements of a usable cross-channel experience. Consistency across channels helps build trust with customers.

The Internet Desktop Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-03 useit.com

The Need for Speed Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-03-01 useit.com

All usability studies show that fast response times are essential for Web usability: let's believe the data for once! Advice for speeding up sites despite the fact that bandwidth is going down, not up.

The Need for Web Design Standards Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-09-13 useit.com

Users expect 77% of the simpler Web design elements to behave in a certain way. Unfortunately, confusion reigns for many higher-level design issues.

The Network is the User Experience Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-06-25 useit.com

Microsoft's .NET strategy is a brilliant counter-move that reduces the Justice Department's proposed penalty to a victory in the previous war. Integrating the user experience at the network level opens the door to new and exciting services while diminishing the importance of traditional isolated websites.

The Power of Default Values Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-09-26 useit.com

Search engine users click the results listings' top entry much more often than can be explained by relevancy ratings. Once again, people tend to stick to the defaults.

The Slow Tail: Time Lag Between Visiting and Buying Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-09-06 useit.com

Users often convert to buyers long after their initial visit to a website. A full 5% of orders occur more than four weeks after users click on search engine ads.

The Web in 1997 (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox January 1997) Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-01 useit.com

The Web-Backlash of 1996 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-04 useit.com

Thinking Aloud: The #1 Usability Tool Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-01-16 useit.com

Simple usability tests where users think out loud are cheap, robust, flexible, and easy to learn. Thinking aloud should be the first tool in your UX toolbox, even though it entails some risks and doesn't solve all problems.

Thirty Years With Computers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-05-24 useit.com

Since I started using computers, they've become almost a million times more powerful. Although big computers can be alienating, their evolution generally leads to a better user experience.

Time Budgets for Usability Sessions Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-09-12 useit.com

Up to 40% of precious testing time is wasted while users engage in nonessential activities. Far better to focus on watching users perform tasks with the target interface design.

Time to Make Tech Work Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-09-15 useit.com

The IT industry is maturing. Hopefully, this maturity will result in a slower introduction of new features, which in turn will let companies focus their attention and resources on making existing technology work better for users.

Top HCI Research Laboratories Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-03-31 useit.com

A core group of elite corporate research labs (and a few universities) defined the field of human-computer interaction and established much of whatever ease of use we now enjoy. With big labs disappearing, the future of HCI research is in jeopardy.

Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-05 useit.com

The ten most egregious offenses against users. Web design disasters and HTML horrors are legion, though many usability atrocities are less common than they used to be.

Top Ten Mistakes of Web Management Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-06-15 useit.com

Web project management impacts usability significantly. Mistakes include having site structure mirror your orgchart, outsourcing to multiple agencies, generic links from offline collateral, and lack of strategic thinking

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-12-22 useit.com

Sites are getting better at using minimalist design, maintaining archives, and offering comprehensive services. However, these advances entail their own usability problems, as several prominent mistakes from 2003 show.

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-10-03 useit.com

The oldies continue to be goodies -- or rather, baddies -- in the list of design stupidities that irked users the most in 2005.

Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-12-23 useit.com

Every year brings new mistakes. In 2002, several of the worst mistakes in Web design related to poor email integration. The number one mistake, however, was lack of pricing information, followed by overly literal search engines.

Top-10 Application-Design Mistakes Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-02-19 useit.com

Application usability is enhanced when users know how to operate the UI and it guides them through the workflow. Violating common guidelines prevents both.

Top-10 Information Architecture (IA) Mistakes Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-05-11 useit.com

Structure and navigation must support each other and integrate with search and across subsites. Complexity, inconsistency, hidden options, and clumsy UI mechanics prevent users from finding what they need.

Top-10 New Mistakes of Web Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-05-30 useit.com

New technology and conventions have led to several new classes of usability problems in Web design.

Tracking Site Growth Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1998-02-22 useit.com

Website usage must be tracked to plan server capacity needs and future business models. Examples show use of regression statistics to predict future traffic patterns.

Traffic Log Patterns Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-07-10 useit.com

The relative popularity of a site's pages, the number of visitors referred by other sites, and the traffic from search queries continue to follow a Zipf distribution.

Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-10-20 useit.com

Automated email can improve customer service, strengthen relationships, and help websites bypass search engines. But most messages fared poorly in user testing and didn't fulfill this potential.

Transmedia Design for 3 Screens - Make That 5 Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-08-29 useit.com

Mobile use will rise, but desktop computers will remain important, forcing companies to design for multiple platforms, requiring continuity in visual design, features, user data, and tone of voice.

Traveling Usability Lab Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-09-10 useit.com

User testing can be done anywhere; witness our international studies, carried out with equipment that fit in a carry-on bag.

Trustworthiness in Web Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-03-07 useit.com

The Web is turning into a low-trust society, hurting the honest sites. Site design can communicate trustworthiness in several ways, though ultimately the customer's actual experience is what matters.

Try to Be a Test User Sometime Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-08-15 useit.com

In pilot studies, you can occasionally relax the need for real users and let members of your own team serve as test participants. It's good for them.

Tunnel Vision and Selective Attention Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-08-27 useit.com

Users don't see stuff that's right on the screen. Selective attention makes people overlook things outside their focus of interest.

TV Meets the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-02-15 useit.com

Comparing the nature of the Web as a medium when accessed through television sets and when accessed through computers, concluding that the level of user engagement is a main differentiator

Twitter Postings: Iterative Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-08-24 useit.com

A timeline message was made more punchy, credible, and viral through 5 rounds of redesign. (Text as UI.)

Two Sigma: Usability and Six Sigma Quality Assurance Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-11-24 useit.com

On average across many test tasks, users fail 35% of the time when using websites. This is 100,000 times worse than six sigma's requirement, but Web usability can still benefit from a six sigma quality approach.

UK Election Email Newsletters Rated Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-04-26 useit.com

The main British parties' email newsletters have higher usability scores than we found for US political newsletters in our last evaluation.

Undoing the Industrial Revolution Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-11-22 useit.com

The last 200 years have driven centralization and changed the human experience in ways that conflict with evolution. The Internet will reestablish a more balanced, decentralized lifestyle.

URL as UI Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-03-21 useit.com

Users continue to type and guess URLs and domain names, so Web usability can be improved by better URLs. In the long term this machine-level addressing scheme must be hidden.

Usability 101: Fundamentals and Definition - What, Why, How Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-08-25 useit.com

What is usability? How, when, and where can you improve it? Why should you care? This overview answers basic questions and explains how to run fast and cheap usability tests.

Usability as Barrier to Entry Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-11-28 useit.com

Increased user impatience will make new websites fail unless they are twice as usable as existing sites. Revolutionary Internet services must explain why users should care in no more than two lines.

Usability for Novel vs. Routine Tasks Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-05-13 NNgroup.com

Repetitive actions on websites often work well, but when users try something new, they frequently fail.

Usability for Senior Citizens Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-04-28 useit.com

The Internet enriches many seniors' lives, but most websites violate usability guidelines, making the sites difficult for seniors to use. Current websites are twice as hard to use for seniors than for non-seniors.

Usability for Senior Citizens Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-05-28 NNgroup.com

Users aged 65 and older are 43% slower at using websites than users aged 21-55. This is an improvement over previous studies, but designs must change to better accommodate aging users.

Usability in the Movies -- Top 10 Bloopers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-12-28 useit.com

User interfaces in film are more exciting than they are realistic, and heroes have far too easy a time using foreign systems.

Usability Metrics Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-01-21 useit.com

Although measuring usability can cost four times as much as conducting qualitative studies (which often generate better insight), metrics are sometimes worth the expense. Among other things, metrics can help managers track design progress and support decisions about when to release a product.

Usability of Websites for Teenagers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-01-31 useit.com

When using websites, teenagers have a lower success rate than adults and they're also easily bored. To work for teens, websites must be simple -- but not childish -- and supply plenty of interactive features.

Usability on a Small Business Budget Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-06-02 useit.com

How can a small company's website benefit from usability activities despite a minuscule budget? By integrating four simple and effective usability practices into the design process.

Usability ROI Declining, But Still Strong Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-01-22 useit.com

The average business metrics improvement after a usability redesign is now 83%. This is substantially less than 6 years ago, but ROI remains high because usability is still cheap relative to gains.

Usability Testing With 5 Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-03-19 useit.com

Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources. The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.

Usability: Empiricism or Ideology? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2005-06-27 useit.com

Usability's job is to research user behavior and find out what works. Usability should also defend users' rights and fight for simplicity. Both aspects have their place, and it's important to recognize the difference.

Use Old Words When Writing for Findability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-08-28 useit.com

Familiar words spring to mind when users create their search queries. If your writing favors made-up terms over legacy words, users won't find your site.

User Education Is Not the Answer to Security Problems Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-10-25 useit.com

Internet scams cannot be thwarted by placing the burden on users to defend themselves at all times. Beleaguered users need protection, and the technology must change to provide this.

User Empowerment and the Fun Factor Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-07-07 useit.com

Designs that engage and empower users increase their enjoyment and encourage them to explore websites in-depth. Once we achieve ease of use, we'll need additional usability methods to further strengthen joy of use.

User Expertise Stagnates at Low Levels
Jakob Nielsen 2013-09-28 NNgroup.com

Learning is hard work, and users don't want to do it; they don't explore the user interface and don't know about most features.

User Payments: Predictions for 2001 Revisited Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2001-12-23 useit.com

Advertising-supported websites will soon be a thing of the past. As I predicted a year ago, sites began charging for services in 2001. Although most sites are still not handling payments right, two innovative European projects hold much hope for 2002.

User Satisfaction vs. Performance Metrics Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-10-08 useit.com

Users generally prefer designs that are fast and easy to use, but satisfaction isn't 100% correlated with objective usability metrics.

User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-02-04 useit.com

Users now do basic operations with confidence and perform with skill on sites they use often. But when users try new sites, well-known usability problems still cause failures.

User Testing is Not Entertainment Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-09-11 useit.com

Don't run your studies for the benefit of the people in the observation room. Test to discover the truth about the design, even when user tasks are boring to watch.

User-Supportive Internet Architecture Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-09-19 useit.com

The basic ideology of the Internet is bit transport; we need a utility-focused human-centered ideology for its fundamental architecture and protocols.

Users Interleave Sites and Genres Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-02-06 useit.com

When working on business problems, users flitter among sites, alternating visits to different service genres. No single website defines the user experience on its own.

Users' Pagination Preferences and 'View All' Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-04-28 NNgroup.com

Long listings might need pagination by default, but if users customize the display to View All list items, respect that preference.

Utilize Available Screen Space Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-05-09 useit.com

Websites and mobile apps both frequently cram options into too-small parts of the screen, making items harder to understand.

Variability in User Performance Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2006-05-16 useit.com

When doing website tasks, the slowest 25% of users take 2.4 times as long as the fastest 25% of users. This difference is much higher than for other types of computer use; only programming shows a greater disparity.

Velocity of Media Consumption: TV vs. the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-11-24 useit.com

The granularity of user decisions is much finer on the Web, which is dominated by the instant gratification of the user's needs in any given instant. Content must cater to this rapid pace.

Video and Streaming Media Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-08-08 useit.com

Most streaming video is useless; instead use higher-quality downloadable clips and short segments that can be chosen from a menu. All multimedia needs plain-page previews.

Voice Interfaces: Assessing the Potential Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-01-27 useit.com

Visual interfaces are inherently superior to auditory interfaces for many tasks. The Star Trek fantasy of speaking to your computer is not the most fruitful path to usable systems.

Voodoo Usability Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-12-12 useit.com

Focus groups and surveys study users' opinions - not actual behavior - so they are misleading for the design of interactive systems like websites. Automated usability measures are just as misleading.

WAP Backlash Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-07-09 useit.com

Experience with WAP in Europe shows that it is hard to use. Because of the miserable usability of the small phones, services must be re-designed for each handset, increasing maintenance costs.

WAP Field Study Findings Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-12-10 useit.com

Following a UK field study, 70% of users decided not to continue using WAP. Currently, its services are poorly designed, have insufficient task analysis, and abuse existing non-mobile design guidelines. WAP's killer app is killing time; m-commerce's prospects are dim for the next several years.

Web 2.0 Can Be Dangerous Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-12-17 useit.com

AJAX, rich Internet UIs, mashups, communities, and user-generated content often add more complexity than they're worth. They divert design resources and prove that what's hyped is rarely what's most profitable.

Web Design vs. GUI Design Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-05-01 useit.com

Designing for the Web is different from traditional user interface design. Fundamentally, the designer gives up a lot of control to the user - get used to it: WYSIWYG is dead

Web in 2001: Paying Customers Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2000-12-24 useit.com

Offering free services on websites is not a sustainable business model, nor is advertising, which doesn't work on the Web. Most Internet companies are now pursuing an enterprise strategy to make money, but they'll soon begin turning to individual customers for revenue as well.

Web Usability Research Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-07-11 useit.com

Much is known about Web user behavior, yet research findings are often ignored in actual projects. Examples: up-front customer registration doesn't work; frequency of use and effectiveness of Web marketing methods are negatively correlated.

Website Reading: It (Sometimes) Does Happen Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-06-24 NNgroup.com

When web content helps users focus on sections of interest, users switch from scanning to actually reading the copy.

Website Response Times Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2010-06-21 useit.com

Slow page rendering today is typically caused by server delays or overly fancy page widgets, not by big images. Users still hate slow sites and don't hesitate telling us.

WebTV Usability Review Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-02-01 useit.com

Analysis of the usability of WebTV, including user interface guidelines for designing cross-platform Web pages that are considerate of WebTV users

Weekly User Testing: TiVo Did It, You Can, Too Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-07-28 useit.com

TiVo ran 12 user tests in 12 weeks while designing its new website. As TiVo's experience shows, frequent and regular testing keeps the design usability focused.

When Bad Design Becomes the Standard Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-11-14 useit.com

Anything done by more than 90% of big sites becomes a de-facto design standard that must be followed unless an alternative design achieves 100% increased usability.

When Search Engines Become Answer Engines Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-08-16 useit.com

The website is becoming a less prominent locus of experience as people use search engines to bring up answers to their current questions. How can sites cope with masses of freeloaders?

When the UI Is Too Fast Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2013-07-08 NNgroup.com

Users might overlook things that change too fast -- and even when they do notice, changeable screen elements are harder to understand in a limited timeframe.

When to Use Which User Experience Research Methods Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-10-06 useit.com

User experience research methods can answer a wide range of questions. Know when to use each method by mapping them in 3 key dimensions and across typical product development phases.

Who Commits the Top-10 Mistakes of Web Design? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-05-16 useit.com

Major websites violate 16% of the top ten mistakes in Web design on the average; huge corporate sites have many more design mistakes than the most popular sites.

Who Should You Hire to Design Your Web Site? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1995- useit.com

Why Consumer Products Have Inferior User Experience Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-03-15 useit.com

Physical products, from consumer electronics to cars, are needlessly complex because they're developed by insular companies that continue to ignore the growing usability trend.

Why Country Sites Are So Bad Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-06-18 useit.com

When a multinational company produces a localized country site, usability is often lost. Local advertising agencies design good-looking sites that don't communicate.

Why Mobile Phones are Annoying Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2004-04-12 useit.com

Bystanders rated mobile-phone conversations as dramatically more noticeable, intrusive, and annoying than conversations conducted face-to-face. While volume was an issue, hearing only half a discussion also seemed to up the irritation factor.

Why People Shop on the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1999-02-07 useit.com

A survey of 1,780 people who have bought something on the Web found that convenience and ease of use are the main reasons to shop on the Web. Non-buying visits (product research) are important to shoppers.

Why WSJ Mobile App Gets ** Customer Reviews Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-07-05 useit.com

A confusing startup screen that offends existing subscribers dooms The Wall Street Journal's iPhone app to low ratings.

Will Plain-Text Ads Continue to Rule? Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2003-04-28 useit.com

Text-only advertisements work far better than banners, but is this only due to their novelty? Search engine text ads will retain their superiority over time, but text ads on other sites will work only if they focus on directly meeting users' needs.

Windows 8 -- Disappointing Usability for Both Novice & Power Users Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2012-11-19 useit.com

Hidden features, reduced discoverability, cognitive overhead from dual environments, and reduced power from a single-window UI and low information density. Too bad.

Winter Olympics Site: Not Even Bronze Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2002-02-17 useit.com

An early tweaking raised the Salt Lake City website to 70% compliance with homepage usability guidelines. Inside the site, however, task support falls far below medal contention.

Wishlists, Gift Certificates, and Gift Giving in E-Commerce Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-01-29 useit.com

Although gift features leverage the online medium and draw new users to a site, they also introduce many usability pitfalls. Among them are poorly designed email notifications, which many users simply ignore.

Workflow Expectations: Presenting Steps at the Right Time Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2011-04-26 useit.com

Actions at one step of an application impact subsequent steps. When users don't understand this relationship, usability suffers.

World's Best Headlines: BBC News Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-04-27 useit.com

Precise communication in a handful of words? The editors at BBC News achieve it every day, offering remarkable headline usability.

Write Articles, Not Blog Postings Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2007-07-09 useit.com

To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers.

Write for Reuse Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2009-02-02 useit.com

Users often see online content out of context and read it with different goals than you envisioned. While you can't predict all such goals, you can plan for multiple uses of your text.

Writing for the Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1997-03-15 useit.com

Reading from screens is 25% slower than from paper and we know that Web users skim rather than read. Web text should be short, emphasize scannability, and be structured into multiple hyperlinked pages (each focused on a subtopic).

Writing Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 1996-06 useit.com

Writing Style for Print vs. Web Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-06-09 useit.com

Linear vs. non-linear. Author-driven vs. reader-driven. Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content. Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data. Sentences vs. fragments.

Writing to Attract Readers: User-centric vs. Maker-centric Language
Janelle Estes 2013-09-28 NNgroup.com

To engage users, website copy must speak to readers and not at them. Include words people can relate to, and avoid jargon, business speak, and feature-driven language.

Year's 10 Best Application UIs Alertbox: Web Usability Newsletter
Jakob Nielsen 2008-08-12 useit.com

Many winners employ dashboards to give users a single overview of complex information and use lightboxes to ensure that users notice dialogs. Also, the Office 2007 ribbon showed surprisingly strong early adoption.

HCI Bibliography : HCI Webliography : HCI-SITES : ALERTBOX

Articles on Usability by Jakob Nielsen.

ALERTBOX : Articles on Usability by Jakob Nielsen