#20863
Ideas for Improved Within-Page Navigation
WebTV is the first Web user interface for which I have discovered a serious need for navigational aids within the page.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Design>Web Design>Usability>Web Browsers
#13615
Improving Usability Guideline Compliance
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Usability
#20851
The reduced reading speed on computers can be compensated by good hypertext design that allows the user to read less information and to find it faster. A typical example is online help and documentation: because the information is right there on the computer, there is no need to spend time finding the hardcopy manual, and because of good search tools and hypertext links between related information, users can go directly to the one or two sections that contain the answer to their problem. After all, Nielsen's first law of computer documentation is that users don't read it. The second law is that if they read it anyway, it's because they are in deep trouble and need the answer to a specific problem. Thus, somebody reading a manual won't really read it cover-to-cover, so online presentation makes perfect sense.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Articles>Documentation>Online>Usability
#18460
In the Future, We'll All Be Harry Potter
The world of magic is a world where inanimate objects come alive; it's as if they had computational power, sensors, awareness, and connectivity.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Usability>Interactive
#28054
Incompetent Email Marketing = Lost Future Opportunities
Lack of personalization made an email newsletter completely useless to the recipient, damaging long-term customer relationship efforts.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Marketing
#26628
Incompetent Email Marketing = Lost Future Opportunities
Lack of personalization made an email newsletter completely useless to the recipient, damaging long-term customer relationship efforts.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Email>Marketing
#28260
Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Search
#19758
Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search
#19755
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Design>Web Design>Writing
#20819
Information Retrieval of Imperfectly Recognized Handwriting
A user test of handwritten input on a pen machine achieved a 1.6% recognition error rate at the character level, corresponding to 8.8% errors on the word level. Input speed was 10 words per minute. In spite of the recognition errors, information retrieval of the handwritten notes was almost as good as retrieval of perfect text.
Nielsen, Jakob, Victoria L. Phillips and Susan T. Dumais. Alertbox (1993). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface
#24465
Informational Articles Must Ask For the Order
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#20855
Instructions for Branch Office Testing
These are the instructions we gave to the people at various Sun branch offices in Europe and Asia for their user testing of a new design for the company's web pages. In a few places, these instructions refer to web-specific issues, so they will have to be modified slightly for use in other projects. These instructions were sent by electronic mail to those local Sun reps who had volunteered to lead a test.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Articles>Usability>Methods>Testing
#26639
International Sites: Minimum Requirements
Users from other countries have special needs related to entry fields for names and addresses, measurements and dates, and information about regional product standards.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>International>Usability
#20859
International Usability Testing
Although products are commonly used in countries other than the one they were designed for, designers often forget to consider different usage circumstances. International use of the Web is particularly common since users can access pages from all over the world with a single click.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Articles>Usability>Methods>International
#20854
They don't call it the World Wide Web for nothing. A single click can take you to a site on another continent and a business can attract customers from hundreds of countries without ever going to a Frankfurt trade show where they book you into a hotel two hours down the autobahn.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Design>Web Design>International>Localization
#21011
Intranet Portals: A Tool Metaphor for Corporate Information
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Design>Web Design>Journalism
#29997
Intranet Usability Shows Huge Advances
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Usability>Intranets
#14183
Intranet Usability: The Trillion-Dollar Question
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Articles>Usability>Intranets
#20853
Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace
This succinct introduction is an example of the inverted pyramid style: starting with the conclusion. If I wanted to write a column about frames I would continue with one or two examples of why frames suck (can't bookmark or print a view) and conclude with a discussion of the fundamental issues (frames impair the user's navigation and break the fundamental user model of the Web as being composed of unitary pages).
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#18454
Investor Relations Website Design
Investor relations (IR) is one of the 'Big Four' standard components of a corporate website (along with public relations, employment, and 'About Us'). In the modern world, investors assume that they can go to www.company.com to research a current or potential investment. While companies must provide IR information to attract and retain investors, they must also be realistic about the types of content and features that users need most. Simplicity and a coherent story about the company are better than drowning users in incomprehensible data.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability
#11873
Some analysts conclude that navigation is useless and that navigation elements should be removed from Web pages. Don't try teaching users the site structure, don't try showing them where they are, don't try telling them where else they can go. Instead, just show people content. I don't fully agree with this analysis. Navigation is overdone on many sites. In particular, the so-called spoke design where every page is linked to every other page leads to reduced usability. Similarly, many sites have overblown footers that link to too many meta-features (say, 'about the company' or a privacy statement).
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#21765
#13559
Kids' Corner: Website Usability for Children
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.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability>Children
#20832
One frequently finds newspaper or magazine articles about the Internet or the World Wide Web stating that the number of servers on the WWW is doubling every 53 days, 'according to a source at Sun Microsystems.' Well, I am that source, and I don't believe the 53-day estimate any more.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1995). Articles>Web Design>History
#20817
A Layered Interaction Analysis of Direct Manipulation
The concept of direct manipulation is usually viewed as a single characteristic of a class of interaction styles. Here, direct manipulation is analyzed according to a detailed layered interaction model, showing that it has quite different effects on the dialogue on the different levels. In particular, the "no errors" claim may be true at the syntax level but not at several of the levels above or below that level. Furthermore, a unified framework is presented for conceptualizing Direct Manipulation, What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG), Transparency, Immediate Command Specification, Arcticulatory Directness, and Computational Appliances according to a layered interaction view.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1992). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface
