Bridging the Designer–User Gap

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Browser Usage Statistics

Statistics on browser popularity, as of December 1996.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Design>Web Design>Statistics>Web Browsers

The Canonical Intranet Homepage

In recent years, 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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Design>Web Design>Intranets>Usability

Card Sorting: How Many Users to Test

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Card Sorting

Celebrating Holidays and Special Occasions on Websites

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Change the Color of Visited Links

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>Color

Change vs. Stability in Web Usability Guidelines

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

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Standards

Collecting Feedback From Users of an Archive (Reader Challenge)

The collective brainpower of the Internet is an awesome beast that used to manifest itself on Usenet newsgroups. Most of these groups have degenerated into spam, flames, and newbie ignorance. The Web has not yet evolved good ways of utilizing this power, since most so-called 'community' sites are equally degenerate.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1999). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Company Name First in Microcontent? Sometimes!

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Hypertext

Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to Write for the Web

Studies of how users read on the Web found that they do not actually read: instead, they scan the text. A study of five different writing styles found that a sample Web site scored 58% higher in measured usability when it was written concisely, 47% higher when the text was scannable, and 27% higher when it was written in an objective style instead of the promotional style used in the control condition and many current Web pages. Combining these three changes into a single site that was concise, scannable, and objective at the same time resulted in 124% higher measured usability.

Morkes, John and Jakob Nielsen. Alertbox (1997). Design>Web Design>Writing>Usability

Content Creation for Average People

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Design>Web Design

Convincing Clients to Pay for Usability

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Usability>Consulting

Corporate Usability Maturity: Stages 1-4

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

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Usability>Workplace

Corporate Usability Maturity: Stages 5-8

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Usability>Workplace

Corporate Websites Get a 'D' in PR

Few corporations would discount the value of positive press. You would never know this given the results of our recent usability study. In our study, 20 journalists attempted to use the press areas of 10 corporate websites to gather information for story assignments. Among other tasks, the journalists tried to find basic information about each company's financials, management, and commitment to social responsibility, along with a PR telephone number. On average, journalists found the answer to each of these simple questions only 60% of the time. If these sites were being graded in a U.S. school, the average grade would be no higher than a D.

Nielsen, Jakob and Kara Pernice Coyne. Alertbox (2001). Articles>Usability>Public Relations

Customers as Designers

The change to customer-designed products is based on the ability to connect the user interface to the manufacturing backend through a computer. As the product is manufactured, the computer knows what customer it is intended for, what that customer specified, and how to track the product through the manufacturing process so that it can be shipped directly to the desired destination. No inventory (one of the business benefits of custom manufacturing).

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Articles>Usability>Wireless Web

Data Lives Forever

Web data (mainly in the form of pages) should live much longer than Web hardware and software. Even though most users go to the newer pages, older pages will still be of interest to some users.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Articles>Web Design>Standards

Data Visualization of Web Stats: Logarithmic Charts and the Drooping Tail

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Web Design>Technical Illustration>Log Analysis

The Death of File Systems

The file system has been a trusted part of most computers for many years, and will likely continue as such in operating systems for many more. However, several emerging trends in user interfaces indicate that the basic file-system model is inadequate to fully satisfy the needs of new users, despite the flexibility of the underlying code and data structures.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface

Deceivingly Strong Information Scent Costs Sales

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce

Deep Linking is Good Linking

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability

Deferred Hypertext: The Virtues of Delayed Gratification

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design

Designing Web Ads Using Click-Through Data

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 percent.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

Did Poor Usability Kill E-Commerce?

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce

Digital Divide: The Three Stages

The 'digital divide' refers to the fact that certain parts of the population have substantially better opportunities to benefit from the new economy than other parts of the population. Most commentators view this in purely economic terms. However, two other types of divide will have much greater impact in the years to come.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Usability>Accessibility>Online