Admittedly, I've been biased against Nielson's works since the publication of `Designing Web Usability' in 1999; finding his tendency to oversimplify and `deconstruct' rather ineffectual. And as usual, `Homepage Usability' disappoints as an overly sensational and inaccurate evaluation of homepage usability. There are good parts, in particular, the statistics you may want to reference for your own usability initiatives. But the `50 webpages deconstructed' portion is not much more than Nielson spewing hot air. If you learn (or are entertained) best through critique by an impossible standard and ideal, by all means, this book is for you. If you are looking for a USABLE and real life guide to homepage design, look elsewhere.

This book excels in giving detailed critiques of the home pages of 50 prominent websites. These include Microsoft, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, General Electric and Boeing. The websites span the gamut from appealing to a mass audience, like Amazon and MTV, to more specialised corporate sites like GE.

The authors offer incisive comments. All the more valuable for not being always complimentary. They show how even a large company can have flaws in its home page. Take GE for example. Its page has a "Buy Online" section. But it is mostly misleading. The links in that section point to such items as aircraft, which you cannot buy online.

The websites were captured several years ago. So it's quite possible that if you go to their current addresses, the pages are different. Yet the analysis in the book is still instructive. It should also be noted that the unusual shape of the book might be misleading. From the outside, it looks like a coffeetable type book. Full of glossy images. It does indeed have the latter. But these are high resolution screen captures that enhance the visual nature of the pages and their analyses.

If you are designing your own website, try going first through this book, for inspiration.

This is Jakob Nielsen's more pragmatic follow-up book to 'Designing Web Usability'. The book is divided into two parts. In the first half, Nielsen presents 113 guidelines for designing home pages derived from research conducted by the Nielsen/Norman Group. The second half (and bulk of the book) consists of the practical application of these guidelines in the analysis of 50 website homepages. The 113 guidelines are excellent, summarizing a great deal of HCI research and will be beneficial to anyone designing websites. The second half starts off strong with insightful narratives as Nielsen deconstructs each homepage, clearly illustrating the guidelines. However, after reading about ten or so of the critiques, they become quite monotonous, as each homepage clearly makes the same mistakes as the prior one. If you can manage to get through the deja vu, then the 113 guidelines will surely be imprinted in your brain and on your work.

I saw Jakob once at a usability conference and all I can say is "What a friggin' ego." The whole beginning of his presenation was a series of slides showing what magazines he's been featured in. It totally eroded any semblance of scholarship I may have once thought he posessed.
And if you don't think ego is involved, check out his rates on the neilson/norman consulting site.

It's worth the first 53 pages. I don't think anybody cares about if a specific site do or doesn't do something rigth unless it is in a specific example. I found three usability problems in the book itself.
First, the printed format is odd and hard to handle.
Second, when he make the breakdown of the hompage sould have some kind of rating for each point, like Good, Bad or Regular. In this case if your are looking to see what is good or bad in a homepage you don't have to read all of them.
Third, the appendix. Completely useless. It doesn't give you a hint of the meaning in the real state breakdown. If you want to see the logo of one of the company in the book just go to the review of that company or go to their hompage. The search features doesn't say anything about it, it is a collection of different search boxes. The other collection in the appendix are not worthy comment them out.
If you want to take read the book, I recommend going to a public library or to a boookstore and red it there, not worth spend your money, save it for a bouquet to your spouse (or boy/girl-friend).

HAve you seen this guy's site, useit.com? That says it all concerning his abilities. He loves to see his name and pictures in print, and that is very obvious from checking out his site.

I would not buy his books, nor listen to any of his advise. At best he can offer tips for designing handicapped accesible sites, but that's about it.

This is an excellent book about the design of homepages that could have benefited from paying attention to some of the authors' own points about design.

Nielsen and Tahir are consultants who advise their clients about the design of homepages on web sites. The book is a collection of screen shots of fifty different homepages with a description of the purpose of each web site and a chart showing the allocation of screen real estate amongst topics like navigation, content and advertising. Most of the authors' real estate is used for number-coded comments about each homepage. In addition, based on their analysis of what does and does not work on the sites, the authors provide a list of guidelines for homepage designers.

This useful book calls attention to common mistakes that have been made in the design of homepages by major companies, many of them in the Fortune 500, like Microsoft and Ford. Indeed, one complaint I had is that none of the web sites analyzed were sites for individuals and small companies. Given that, after seeing half the pages, one already has a pretty big dose of knowledge about large company mistakes, it might have been pleasant and useful to look at how to improve the web sites of small timers.

One of the things that the authors urge is consistency in the design of homepages so that users will be able to find their way around homepages more easily. For example they urge that any search box be placed in the upper right or left hand corner. They also weigh in against animation on a homepage. One of the dangers of hewing to the authors' consensus rules is that homepages may develop such a sameness that users won't differentiate between them.

One problem with the book is that although the authors are concerned about easing the way around the homepage for users, they haven't eased the reader's way around their comments. The numbered circles keyed to the comments are organized right to left and top to bottom on the page. But readers will look at one area and then another on the page with the screen shot and will have a hard time coordinating the instincts of their eyes with the numbered comments.

There are also some curious appendixes. I suppose it might be useful for comparison to have all of the logos laid out on a two page spread, but what is one to make of an appendix called "Smiling Ladies" with a selection of graphics from the homepages, not all of which are smiling ladies.

This is a good reference book for professional designers of big web sites. The homegrown webmaster will probably find something like "The Non-Designer's Web Book" by Robin Williams, (the third edition of which is planned to be published in February of 2005) more useful.

This book do exactly what it states - deconstruct 50 of the best websites HOMEPAGES. It does not go into detail about the inner pages or usability errors other then those which appear at the first page.

Jakob explanations are clear, written well and to-the-point, and the way the book is presented is admirable.

Get this book for the ability to point and fix any usability issue on any homepage you will ever visit/build.

This book is a definite MUST HAVE for any website designer, newbie to web design and anyone and everyone who has an online business. Simple, easy to understand visuals compliment the text, which is written in a very simplistic manner. This book is wonderful - magnificent - excellent, and will help you greatly understand the elements of successful web design. I've used it to consistently update my own website, at:
http://www.aei.dli.com
If you don't have this book, you're missing out on your single-most-important investment in your professional life!

For you who want to find FACTS and not only theories about usability, this is great! They give the current page of the website and give note for every elements inside. Not only a common note but also suggestions that will make the page looks (and functions) better, such as:
- Why do we have to put a word "search" in front of a search box whose button "Search" afterwards? Double exposure.
- Why do they mix up the categories? At the menu, they put Books - VCDs - DVDs - Gifts. Gifts could be books, VCDs or even DVDs. So they challenge us to think about better categories.

For me, it's a perfect guidance.

Nielsen, the usability guru (extremist?) and Tahir goes on a crusade against well-known sites, attacking the weak points in terms of usability of each site (they call it "deconstructing").

In spite of the somewhat extreme view of homepage design (what did you expect from Nielsen?), this book is very useful to get a purely-usability viewpoint.

The first part of the book gives statistical data on the placement of various components of a homepage, such as the logo, search, etc. This is important in usability since users will spend more time on other sites than on yours. The data gives a good guideline on the basic page structure of a usable web page.

The other part of the book is the part that "deconstructs" the homepages of the 50 sites. This part is well-illustrated, with first a clean screenshot of the page followed by one with the weaknesses pointed out. This part is an excellent way to learn usability inductively; the 50 case studies are ample for one to practice her usability critiquing skills, which would be useful to use on one's own site.

This book is focused on usability -- not entirely helpful if you are trying to design a pretty site. Also, don't try too hard to satisfy all of Jakob's usability requirements, or your site might end up looking like useit.com.

This book belongs to the bookshelf of every web designer.

In his first book, "Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity", published two years earlier (December 1999), Jakob Nielsen presented a comprehensive stylebook for presenting web pages. Although a tough read for one sitting, it was one of the few books that presented an overall methodology to an organization's web presence. Since that book presented a lot of information most of which I believe was passed over in search of techniques that directly related to the reader; he stated in his first book that he would follow up with a more illustrative volume.

This book narrows the field down somewhat by only concentrating on homepages. The first part of the book consists of a chapter on "Homepage Guidelines" which encompasses the first 52 pages. The following 250 pages or so show screen shots of various homepages from large organizations. Some examples are Citigroup, ExxonMobil, FedEX, General Motors, and Microsoft. There is some satisfaction however in seeing some large company with a richly funded web program stumble or just plain get it wrong. It makes my mistakes a little more tolerable.

The first page of a typical "deconstruct" is a screen shot of the company's homepage. This is followed by a description of the company, a short critique, a color map of the page showing areas devoted to content of interest, self promotion, advertising, navigation, filler, browser controls etc. A breakdown of the actual percentages is illustrated with a pie chart. The third page shows the homepage with numbers representing each of the points (mostly mistakes) that the author is trying to highlight. Yes, as other reviewers stated some of the mistakes he points out can be a bit repetitive, such as logo placements, taglines, and redundant navigations buttons, in general he (along with Marie Tahir) he gives you specific examples with which you can learn from.

Both his books have helped me, if only in thinking of web pages as one avenue of communication. Is your webpage communicating to others in a straightforward, consistent matter in the least amount of time as possible? Two main themes do shine through in both his books; make the file size small and the presentation clear so that users have to spend the minimum amount of time navigating your site, and don't over sell your links. Once users click to a link and it is not what they expected they just might not come back to your site in the future.

First off, this is weird critiquing a critique book. ;-)

At the beginning of Homepage Usability is a big list of informative guidelines for creating a a useable homepage and a few pages devoted to homepage design statistics -- showing what other people are doing, but that's not this book's raison d'etre. It's the usability critiques -- I found it absolutely invaluable showing these 50 websites next to eachother. Some of the advice seemed unbalanced and a lot was repeated, but the authors really dissected each site thoroughly. At times the authors seemed to dispense anti-graphic design, lowest common denominator advice which may get you fumiing like it did me...but fortunately that is kept to a minimum.

Two gripes: One, something that was missing from the book that I would have liked to have seen is perhaps a simple chart or scale showing from 1-10 how "usable" each website is, to complement their critiques. Second, one of the sites that were reviewed was going out of business -- what's the point?

Tightly focused on homepage usability, hence the title. 113 usability success elements are presented, and 50 popular websites are evaluated based on the success elements. After about 5 reviews, they become quite redundant, and many are nitpicky. Most web sites reviewed made the same common mistakes, which are harped on throughout the book. I stopped reading them after about 15, and then just skimmed the most popular ones thereafter.

Repeated at least 20 times are these themes:

* Title your pages appropriately
* Get a good tagline
* Provide example content on the homepage, not just links
* Write headlines as succinctly as possible, while retaining greatest possible meaning
* Have a search box available
* Categorize links and sections appropriately
* Use good labels
* Use images wisely, and not gratuitously
* Beware of ads, and anything looking like them

Readers of "Designing Web Usability" won't find nearly as much substance in this book, but Nielsen fans won't be disappointed. He certainly is consistent!

My first exposure to this book was from a handout in a class on web design. The handout was a photocopy of a couple pages of statistics on where to place search and what to label it. It makes sense to put our web page elements in expected places so that users will have an easier time finding the information they need.

I felt the guidelines in the first chapter were good. They were easy to understand and organized effectively. I wish, however, that there was a summarized checklist-format of these. The topics have an introductory paragraph that can help convince bosses and customers of the importance of the following suggested rules. For example, search is said to be important and easy to use and find. The numbered tips on how to do just that are easily implemented (and also easy to finally form into words why a site's search isn't "doing it for you"). Since I surf the web a lot, it didn't surprise me that input boxes should be big enough. I have seen search fields way too small on places I wouldn't expect it ....

The most valuable - and most easily outdated - part of the book is the Homepage Design Statistics. For example, it is suggested we design for the median page width of 770 pixels. But how long will this be true? The authors make a good point for having a page that resizes to your window (liquid layout), but it should still work for those with smaller browser windows. I prefer liquid and was surprised that only 18% of the 50 homepages surveyed used a liquid layout. Perhaps this number has changed since the book's printing. Most of the information is timeless like calling the link to job openings "Careers" instead of "Join Our Staff."

The rest of the book is dedicated to actual reviews of various well-known sites. The points found and discussed are labeled on a screen shot of the site so that it's easy to see what the authors are talking about. ...

I will reference the tips often and have already started using some of the terms I discovered in this book ("Smiling Ladies"). But, I felt like I was repeatedly being sold Nielsen's usability reports or testing. I felt that here are some great tips but not even half of what you need so go to the online store and buy more. ... Another problem I have with the book is the actual book. Why is it too cumbersome? It is attractive to look at but doesn't fit well on my desk shelf with the other frequently used books. The binding is also already starting to complain from use. Another problem I have is that it seems geared for corporate websites, but I know it is not. Perhaps next edition can have more small, not-for-profit website reviews so that it's easier for readers to convince their bosses that this applies to all, not just Ebay.

According to this book, users spend most of their time on other sites than your site... When a user visits your site, he/she will be bringing a large load of mental baggage accumulated from prior visits to thousands of other home pages. So by the time they reach your web site, users have accumulate a generic mental model of the way a homepages are supposed to work, based on their experience on these other sites.

It is a very interesting point. According to authors of the book, there are few large web sites that might count themselves among the first 10 to 20 sites visited by new users. And design of these web sites dictate the design conventions that a user will expect when he/she visits other web sites.

Example of some of these conventions mentioned in the book are:

upper-left corner is the best place for a site logo
upper-right corner are more generic locations for search widgets and "help" links
Navigation of the site is best usable either as a tab-style (such as in amazon.com) or as a column on left side of the page (such as in CNN.com)
Links should be blue-underlined, and visited links should be purple-underlined
footer navigation links should be only for "foot-note-related" content and should be limited to no more than 7 links
on and on it goes
So how do authors derive these conclusions? The process is actually very interesting. They conduct studies of top 50 chosen web sites and group their findings into conventions.

The book also "deconstructs" those 50 chosen Home Pages, and provides annotated analysis. You may find it interesting. Among those are such sites as About.com, Accenture.com, Yahoo.com, BBC Online, CNET, Disney, eBay, Microsoft, IBM and many more.

Although majority of the book is on annotating home pages, authors also give some generic tips on home page design. Some of those tips I recall are:

liquid page layout is preferred over fixed sized tables
the most optimal page width is 760 pixels (for fixed layout)
page length of the homepage should be around two full screens, but not more than four
frames suck big time
horizontal scrolling is the curse
"Guest Books" are not for pros
Do not use exclamation marks!
and on and on it goes
While reading homepage annotations, I felt very strong emphasis on the title of the homepages (the one between tags). These tags are easily left un-noticed, one would think. But properly chosen titles make big difference while bookmarking your page. Try it yourself.

In other words, do not start your titles with "The" and "Welcome", because in person's favorites lists, it would be misplaced in the alphabetical order.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone venturing in Web Designs.

P.S. Although the book is on Home Page usability, the book itself doesn't seem "usable" at all. Size of the book is so clumsy that doesn't fit in a standard sized book shelf.

I thought it ironic that a book on usability is such a ridiculous size and shape. Try finding a shelf on your bookcase for a 10" x 10" book. It sticks out a good 2" further than industry standards. While some of this is justified, because of the web screen shots, there is a thick red border on all pages that could have been trimmed to make this book more USABLE.

It's kind of like a book on brevity being 3,000 pages...

It's been over a year now since I first read and reviewed this book, co-authored by the world's guru on Web Usability, Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir. Still it provides incredible advice on what to do and what not to do on a Homepage. As much criticism as the author's seem to throw at web sites, if you read it, think Jay Leno and have fun! Don't take it personally and THINK whether you might be making the same mistakes on your own web site. For instance, a number of the sites featured in the book are still (even after subsequent redesigns) incurring in the same mistakes, some of them not even related to Web Design, but rather to Marketing at large. In fact, one of the most common ones continues to be the lack of an effective tag line that explains clearly what the site/company is about. After over a year, it's surprising how useful this book can continue to be, in spite of the very dynamic nature of the Web.

As a Web Project Manager, this book is a continuous reference for ideas and pitfall watchouts. Plus it is a very helpful guide to educate staff in areas outside of IT about why certain ideas for a web site don't quite work, while others have gotten to the point of becoming web design standards. Get it: it can become your biggest ally! ;)

Don't even bother with this book unless you've also read Jakob Nielsen's "Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity" -- his vastly superior work. It's not that the content of "Homepage Usability" is wrong. It's actually insightful analysis... repeated 50 times. The redundancy is the problem. I like Nielsen's work, and it's important to me because I manage a popular website. But this book feels like it was something written as a regular column for a monthly magazine. The redundancy is has a nice preaching-to-the-choir effect if it's a once-a-month reminder; it's mind-numbing if you try to ready 50 of them in a row.

After reading some of the reviews here, I almost didn't buy this book. But I'm glad I did. I agree that some people might find some of the critiques nit-picking. I also agree that the authors are not qualified to give copywriting advice.

But the point about exclamation marks on the homepage is a good one. They are overused. I've overused them myself. And they do make a page look like so much hype in many cases. Copywriters get carried away with hype and the web is no place for that.

I don't think we can take anyone's advice in total all the time. But I can tell you this. After I read only a few pages in this book I saw changes that I needed to make.

After looking at the critiques in the book, I can easily see the small very fine details that can make all the difference in the world in usability and, moreover, in marketing.

Jakob does extensive testing with real people and I have a lot of faith in his findings. His word is not the last word. But I trust him and I think people who are involved with designing or writing Web sites should read what he writes.

They don't have to agree with everything. But not to read him would be a mistake.

The changes I've made due to his advice have paid big dividends. I don't hold 100 percent to everything he says. But I believe I have a site that is very user-friendly in part because I apply his principals and I pass them on to my clients.

If people would just read the intricate detail in each critique, they would see what one small change could make and why it should be done the way the authors suggest.

I would have given the book five stars but the book itself had some misspelled words and it used the word "website" instead of "Web site" which is the accepted way to write it. I don't necessarily blame the authors for that. It was probably a low level editor who let those errors happen. But they shouldn't be there. Especially in a slick, well designed book and a book about usability and perfection.

But to anyone involved in making decisions about a Web site --- especially designers and copywriters --- I highly recommend this book.

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

I don't understand why anyone wants to bother with this book. After reviewing it for 1 hour or less, I sold it.

Most of what it says is obvious, and some of what it says is wrong. As for what are wrong--I recall it was suggesting that certain words be made more efficient (shorter). But the problem is that those words are the same words that the firm has spent millions of dollars to brand better with.

Also, I feel that it nearly disregards the strategic reasoning behind some of the website's design objectives.

If you've got the time to read this tedious, nit-picky text, you're better off spending the time to analyze a website yourself and make your own judgments.

As fifty web sites are deconstructed (mostly criticized for poor design and lack of content), the main takeaway is a mental list of "don'ts" with some hints of what to do instead. The book could have analyzed only half the number of sites and still been useful: after the 20th or 30th, the critiques become redundant, and it's tiring to read the same problems (and solutions) over and over. However, the 113-point checklist at the beginning of the book makes for a great reference: use the list to systematically review your own site or next project, and see how it stacks up. You won't agree with every requirement of the authors, but at least you'll have to think and justify the times when you do something they wouldn't.

This book shows why Jakob Nielsen is so highly respected in the field of usability. The first part of the book contains the principles and concepts used for properly designing Websites. They are very detailed and very complete. The second part of the book contains critiques of 50 different homepages. Most of the homepages are from medium to large companies (FedEx, Accenture, ...), but there are also a few from local companies. Nielsen sticks with the homepages because it's the most important page on most sites, and the homepage tends to reflect the structure of the rest of the site. Nielsen points out the good and bad aspects of the homepages. He also does it in a very clearly designed graphic presentation. He numbers the areas of the homepage he wishes to comment on, then follows the graphic homepages with pages of comments clearly cross-referenced to the numbers. A very easy to follow format that I will use in my own presentations from now on. Easily done using layers in Paint Shop Pro. This section of the book shows how few companies actually follow good usability practices. In fact, some of the companies that supposedly help other companies develop a Web presence actually have atrocious usability practices on their own sites (the Accenture site is particularly hideous and poorly structured, although they have improved it slightly since the book's release). The mistakes are common among designers, so Nielsen tends to be a little repetitive. Not really something he can avoid since the common mistakes are made by the page designers and they must be pointed out. We all know how bad Web design currently is because we're continually looking for things or confused by the structure or navigation of newly visited Websites. Using Nielsen's examples, any designer should be able to greatly improve their design practices. At least they'll be better than the designers at most of these 50 companies.

Along with Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think and Alan Cooper's The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, this book stands at the top of the heap of usability books. And it's a better tool, especially for quick reference, than Nielsen's last book, Designing Web Usability.

This book basically lays out the fundamentals of home page usability and then points out things that are right or wrong with some 50 popular websites.

Although the content of the book is ok, it is highly ironic that the book itself violates the very principles it is trying to preach.

First of all, the book is very HEAVY because it has color pages which are printed on heavy bond paper. It is also unwieldy because the pages are LARGE (Since the authors print out those website homepages at almost 100% of their actual size). It is simply to cumbersome to read on the train, or laying on a bed. One has to read it with the book rested on a table because it is so hard to manage (It won't even stand by itself because it is soft covered.)

Second of all, some pages are completely wasted, which is again highly ironical since the authors talk about spaces WASTED on webpages...) For example on pages 5-6 entitled "Homepage Guidlines," page 5 is black with no content, and there's content on only half of page of page 6. In the "website decontruction pages" section, webpages that are being analyzed are printed in the same size twice, one with red numbered circles(to be pointed out in the opposite page), one without. The authors could have just printed the pages with the red cicles on it (or have the original in a smaller size) and still achieve the same effect.

The red border to the side of the book is completely useless (other than for visual effect). While its purpose is to indicate which webpage it is analyzing, it could have been done without this SIZABLE red border . They could also have used this sizeable border to color-code the various sections of the book. As it is, it is space wasted that adds to the already massive size of the book.

Without the wasted page real estate, the book would have been tremendously lighter, more portable, and would have allowed the reader to enjoy reading it more. I understand that it is suppose to be a book relating to webpage design (hence the fancy layout), but it is an "usability" book, not a "fancy design 101" book. While the information given is good, I could have brought another book that offers same amount of content, but with less hassle (and probably with less amount of money given the fact that bond paper is expensive.)

If Jacob Nielsen were to deconstruct his own book, he would fail to meet his own standard of usability.

As a software designer, I keep pretty close tabs on the current thinking about usability. And while Nielsen's periodic AlertBox column is excellent, this book seemed more like something you simply flip through rather than use as a solid desk reference on Web site and homepage design.

Several times as I read through the book, I thought to myself that he really sold himself short. Lists are so long as to be utterly unusable, and the "mistakes" he highlights are too repetitive, and often ambiguous. This is hardly the kind of empirical-evidence-based advice I was hoping for; in the end, it seemed like he just jotted down notes as he went along and found someone to publish it. And while the look and feel of the book itself is excellent, the content is poorly thought out. Maybe he just needs a better editor (after all, I found many typos, something that's hard to stomach when he is so critical of similar mistakes). Finally, some of the advice he offers merely serves to demonstrate his lack of business experience and basic branding and marketing, which is both ironic and embarrassing.

I'll admit that his task isn't an easy one, as he faces a central dilemma: he either must point out every little problem, or risk coming under fire for missing something. Unfortunately, I think he erred on the side of "too much trivia" at the expense of his readers. The book was fun to look through, and it gave me several important insights into homepage design, but I can' t imagine that I will ever refer to it. If you want excellent insight into web page and homepage usability, I would stick with the Alertbox.

Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed by Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir, breaks new ground in the art and science of critiquing Website design. This full-color book features assessments of 50 popular corporate Website home pages and provides significant insight for developing sharp eyes and minds for objectively evaluating Website design efforts. Website home pages featured in the book includes Amazon, Boeing, FedEx, Gateway, General Motors, IBM, Microsoft, Ticket Master, USA Today, and Wal-Mart.

As the authors point out in the book, and rightfully so, company home pages - and those of others - must advance and protect their public image. Any inconsistencies and weaknesses can have a negative impact on the way companies and other people are perceived by the public. Trust and reputation are important commodities to convey. And it starts with the home page.

The book offers readers many important Website design learning experiences. They will learn to develop keen awareness for communicating Website purpose through the effective use of Web page space, by using particular features when most appropriate, understanding and applying general layout design principles, developing clear and precise written content, designing and effectively placing graphics, and incorporating purposeful navigation and linking. Readers will also pick up on the marketing and promotion strategies that are heavily dependent upon these and other important design considerations.

The authors survey the use of specific Website design features, they set forth certain criteria for effective Website design, and offer readers valuable constructive criticism throughout the book that will encourage them to enhance their own Website design efforts. Although some comments in the book appear to be picky, they do make good sense. We should always be assessing our own Website design strategies and sometimes the best way to learn is by objectively analyzing the work of others.

We owe it ourselves and to others to be aware of the world around us and to design Websites that are totally relevant and effective in conveying their intended messages. This book will contribute to our understanding of human nature and public response to the Web as a leading communications medium. It will also generate additional interest and enthusiasm for designing Websites. There are many exciting lessons to learn from it. The instruction is clear, the color graphics are great, and the layout is spacious, making it an excellent workshop and classroom course book.

This book really helped me when it was time for me to design my own website. Reading the book Guerrilla PR Wired convinced me of the necessity of having a website and how much it could benefit me, and Homepage Usability showed me how to make that possible.

The value of this book comes from the sheer volume of insight it contains: Jakob and Marie leave no stone unturned listing all the things that make for well-designed home pages.

A few downsides:
- The home page reviews are comprehensive, but the "problems" the authors find get somewhat repetitive after a while. In fact, after reading through about 20 reviews I was able to find more than half of the "problems" before reading the review (simply by looking at the screnshots).
- Another thing the authors could have done to make the reviews more useful: separate serious problems from trivial ones instead of listing them all in a single list.

Conclusion:
While the book does have its quirks, it is a solid reference overall and will make a great addition to any web designer's library.

To the reviewer, "A reader from Columbus, Ohio" who wants his money back; maybe you should read it again; it does mention that a small site does not require a search feature (long as it is easily navigated).

I have implemented changes mentioned in this book, on my site, and have seen dramatic increases in traffic and business.

The professional advice for this price is a steal, moreover, the book is beautiful and has recently won has won the Independent Publisher Book Award 2002 for best book of the year in the "computer/Internet" category.

I'm stunned that any reader would give this book 5 stars.
It is filled with obvious and uninsightful nitpicks of popular entry pages (not websites, which is where actual usability comes into play).
His capricious evaluation tactics include measuring the percentage of pixels allocated to things like "white space", "self promotional" and "filler" (he does not inform the reader his distinction between such categories. Nor does he indicate what magical percentage he finds appropriate).

Anyone looking for usability insight from Nielsen need only look at his mundane website (useit.com) to see the lackluster consequences of following Nielsen's advice (it's also worth a look since much of the 'information' in this book can be had there for free).

I went to the local bookstore scanning for flash books, found this gem and picked it up instead (at full price aagh should've ordered here sigh) ..

What's good:
Excellent full color pages with carefully written, detailed pros and cons of 50 various homepages.

How it's better than other usability texts:
I scanned through 12 others, they were all in plain text, not engaging, and not much in the way of examples.

This book is superb, has a lot to learn from, even for a veteran web designer like myself. I'm sure the reviews will help me improve my sites' designs and clarity.

Nice work, a webmaster "must have" .. imho.

This book really shows what it takes to have an easily browsable site. It takes 50 sites and breaks them down into what they did right and wrong. The book also gives guidelines on what every site should follow to kinda give a standard on the web. Also, they have done their research to show us what works and doesn't which is a big plus. In short, great book...get it.

In spite of the attractive cover and being publiehsed by New Riders, this book is a great disappointment. My advice for any current webdesigner is to look elsewhere for ideas. The first 33 pages of this book contain advice that seems more appropriate for a text book on writing, such as using standard capitalization, spelling out the name of a month and using standard abbreviations.

The next section of the book describes statistics collected by the authors. Here, the statistics are presented in a way that strongly encourages primarily cookie-cutter websites. For example, the authors found that 84% of the websites they looked at had the company logo in the upper-left corner of the homepage. And follow this finding with "We recommend that your site include a logo on the homepage placed in the upper-left corner." As another example it criticizes sites (and even excludes them from their analysis) that do not offer a search feature. With statements such as "Unbelieveably, 14% of the homepages didn't have a search feature." seems to make no allowance for small sites where a search feature would be unnecessary and even foolish.

The final section of the book provides full-color screen shots of popular website homepages and an analysis of those pages by the authors. Here, the authors "critique" pages with frequent trivial comments that seem more appropriate to a scolding teacher or parent with comments like "There should be..." or "This is odd..." or "It's never good.."

I really enjoy good web design books and frequently recommend them to other designers and even clients. But I could not recommend this book even to a novice.

This book contains a bit of practical information on usability but the deconstructions are excessive and narrow minded. Nielsen's opinions seem entirely subjective as well as rigid when he dismisses elements on pages that are useful and popular (such as amazon.com's much used Friends and Favorites) as being frivolous and useless. I get the impression from reading Nielsen's advice that community, interactivity, visual appeal, fun, and anything else that is not 100% utilitarian and "down to business" is unacceptable.

A Nielsen approved home page must fit a cookie cutter template that he has decided makes it as efficient as possible. This advice in this book consistently ignores the purpose of the "illegal" design or interactive element. The idea here is to stick to a basic template and make the content fit those specifications, even if those elements are working and serve a purpose. Otherwise, you are detracting from the home page's purpose and usability. This makes no sense.

It is possible and preferable to create a visually interesting home page complete with clever innovative content, catch phrases, or interactive features that is perfectly useable and certainly more enjoyable.

Nielsen delivers exactly what he promises in this book; lots of pithy criticisms on a very narrow topic - company homepages. I see the same problems all the time; they aren't going away and neither is Nielsen. The book is well-focused and usable. I understand the comments of reviewers who feel like Nielsen trashes everything that is creative. However, usability is the single-minded pursuit of ease-of-use; graphic artists DO get "too" creative and marketers DO get carried away - and ordinary users DO leave websites that are too difficult to use!