Keeping Sites Simple
Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity
By Jakob Nielsen
New Riders, 1999, 419pp.
www.useit.com/jakob/webusability
$45
Publishers usually relegate a book's subtitle to some small corner of the cover. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen, on the other hand, chose to give the subtitle of his latest book, "The Practice of Simplicity," first billing on the book's back cover. In his introduction, he explains that his message can be summarized in one sentence: "Relish simplicity, and focus on the users' goals rather than glitzy design." Nielsen concludes the book by reiterating his intention to help the Web "regain a level of simplicity that can put humanity at peace with its tools once again."
Clearly, Nielsen is not one for subtlety. Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity is a collection of tips and examples for designing—what else?—simple, and hence, usable Web sites.
Nielsen notes that designing for the Web is not just about making something visually pleasing, although that's the approach many designers take. The Web is the interface to a vast amount of information, and so the emphasis must be on usability, he says.
The problem is similar to that faced by designers of software user interfaces, with a few important differences. Nielsen points out that developers building GUIs for traditional software applications might have to account for screens varying in size from 640x480 to 1600x1200. Web designers, on the other hand, have to design an interface that may be viewed on anything from a large computer screen to a cellular phone.
