Homepage Usability:
50 Websites Deconstructed

Book by Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir
New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis
ISBN 0-73571-102-X

USA, Canada, and most countries outside Europe:: Buy from Amazon.com
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Please buy through these links: Amazon pays me a referral fee that doubles the share of the purchase price that goes to the author, giving me time off from other projects to write new books.

Homepages are the most valuable real estate in the world. Millions of dollars are funneled through a space that's not even a square foot in size. The homepage is also your company's face to the world. Potential customers look at your company's online presence before doing any business with you. Complexity or confusion make people go away. Of course, all other aspects of bad web design should be fixed as well, but if the homepage doesn't communicate what users can do and why they should care about the website, you might as well not have a website at all. That's why homepage usability is so important and that's why we wrote a book specifically about this one topic.

We followed on our own principles when naming the book. Most people should be able to figure out what a book called Homepage Usability is about. Two words, and you know the topic.

Study Guide

Four exercises to accompany the book for use by corporate reading groups or individual home study.

Reviews and Articles about the Book

Making Homepage Guide: "most authors leave a significant gap between the theory and practice–a gap that is left up to the reader to fill. Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed boldly steps into that gap with specific observations and suggestions backed with solid quantitative analysis"
ePublishers Weekly: "may prove to be the most important computer-technology book of the year, and perhaps the most important book in this genre for years to come"
eWeek: "I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved or interested in Web design. It is a powerful tool"
NetMechanic: "You'll probably have it [the book's checklist] taped next to your monitor soon after finishing the book ... excellent resource and well worth the cost"
Dr. Dobb's: **** rating ('exceptional') ... "every web designer will find this useful for the stern criticism and serious thought"
AbleStable: ***** rating ... "a truly wonderful book ... great resource for anyone wanting to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of homepage web design"
Technology Decisions: "clear, well organized, and convincing [...] Highly recommended for everyone with a strategic or practical interest in a Web site"
Sydney Morning Herald: "a useful contribution to the discipline, and more fun than you'd think" ... "pushing you to think more rigorously about how users see your own pages"
PC Magazine: "a must-read for Web site designers"
CompuNotes: "you'll be able to take a lot of guesswork out of [the] design process"
Blogcritics: "Well worth the money [...] It's so much fun just to read"
HTMLcenter: "Excellent homepage guidelines and statistics"
Darwin Magazine: "a swell gift for your Web design team"
Sunday Times (London): "Helpful advice, easy to apply" ("books of the year" listing)
SiteCritique: "by far a resource that no web designer should be without")
Mantex UK: "any Web designer [...] will learn a lot"
Danny Yee's Book Reviews: "invaluable advice on web design - I learned a lot from it, as I think even seasoned web designers will"
Winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award for best book of the year in the "computer/Internet" category. Award presented at BookExpo America.
New Media Knowledge: Interview with Jakob Nielsen about the book

Have Us Review Your Homepage

Nielsen Norman Group offers a consulting service with an independent usability review of your homepage.

Get a report that spares no punches while giving you directions for how to improve the design of the most important page on your website.
Get your score and find out how you stack up against the other sites we have reviewed.

Book Table of Contents

Preface
113 Design Guidelines for Homepages
- Determining Homepage Content
- Vertical Industry Segments
- Communicating the Site's Purpose
- Communicating Information About Your Company
- Content Writing
- Revealing Content Through Examples
- Archives and Accessing Past Content
- Links
- Navigation
- Search
- Tools and Task Shortcuts
- Graphics and Animation
- Graphic Design
- UI Widgets
- Window Titles
- URLs
- News and Press Releases
- Popup Windows and Staging Pages
- Advertising
- Welcomes
- Communicating Technical Problems and Handling Emergencies
- Credits
- Page Reload and Refresh
- Customization
- Gathering Customer Data
- Fostering Community
- Dates and Times
- Stock Quotes and Displaying Numbers
Homepage Design Statistics
Percentages showing how frequently each of the possible alternatives are used for main homepage design choices.
- Download Time
- Basic Page Layout
- Page Width
- Liquid Versus Frozen Layout
- Page Length
- Frames
- Fundamental Page Design Elements
- Logo
- Search
- Navigation
- Footer Navigation
- Site Map
- Routing Pages
- Splash Pages
- Frequent Features
- Sign In
- About Us
- Contact Info
- Privacy Policy
- Job Openings
- Help
- Graphics and Multimedia
- Pictures
- ALT Text
- Music
- Animation
- Advertising
- Typography
- Body Text and Background Colors
- Link Formatting
- Recommended Homepage Design
Fifty Homepage Reviews
Listing of Window Titles and Taglines
Screen Real Estate Allocation
Gallery of Logos
Gallery of Search Features
Gallery of People Photos
Gallery of Shopping Carts
Index

Errata

List of a few minor errors in the first printing.

Homepages Analyzed in the Book

About.com
Accenture
Amazon
Art Institute of Chicago
AsiaCuisine
Barnes&Noble
BBC
Boeing
CDNow
Citigroup
CNet
CNNfn
Coles
DirectTV
Disney
Drugstore.com
eBay
eMagazineshop
ESPN
ExxonMobil
FedEx
Federal Highway Administration
Florida Department of Revenue
Ford
Gateway

GE
GM
Global Sources
IBM
James Devaney Fuel
JobMagic
Learn2
Microsoft
MotherNature
MTV
NewsNow
New Scientist
PBS
Petsmart
Philip Morris
PlanetRx
Red Herring
Slusser's Green Thumb
Southwest Airlines
Ticketmaster
Travelocity
USA Today
Victoria's Secret
Wal-Mart
Yahoo