Extractions from "Time for a Redesign: Dr. Jakob Nielsen"

Good interview with Jacob Neilsen, whose website http://www.useit.com/alertbox is a great resource for how to build good websites.

Nielsen's "Alertbox"
www.useit.com/alertbox

Adaptive Path's incisive essays on information design, architecture and usability
www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/index.php

Slashdot blurb:

CIO Insight's executive editor Brad Wieners interviews Web site design usability evangelist Jakob Nielsen about design mistakes like poor search, discusses organizational resistance and common barriers to doing usability reviews, concluding with Nielsen's Adobe PDF and pop-up pet peeves, common redesign errors and budget advice when it's time for a redesign, either for your Web site or company intranet. And just to make it more usable and readable (so you don't have to click through multiple pages), you can read the entire Jakob Nielsen interview on one printer-friendly page with fewer graphics and a bandwidth-saving document size for people using dial-up Internet connections.

Notes from this article, originally at http://www.cioinsight.com/print_article/0,1406,a=129234,00.asp

Pet Peeves in General

  • Fail to include a tag line that explicitly summarizes what the site or company does.
  • Neglect to use a liquid layout that lets users adjust the home page size.
  • Don't use color to distinguish visited and unvisited links.
  • Use graphics to decorate, rather than illustrate real content.
  • Give an active link to the home page on the home page.

Source: Dr. Jakob Nielsen's "Alertbox," November 2003

B2B Tips

To make the most of your B2B Web site, nielsen recommends that you "Help your fans help you" win their business. Provide the resources prospective clients' need to sell your products and services internally. Offer these aids:

  • Downloadable product photos, preferably ones that show the product being used.
  • White papers that demonstrate ROI. Make these short, and don't use PDF; standard Web pages make it easier for advocates to cut and paste text and images into their memos and presentations.
  • Links to external press coverage that demonstrates that independent sources have covered you positively.
  • Downloadable tables showing your product's main specifications, benefits and price, along with competitive comparisons.
  • Downloadable slide shows, preferably in PowerPoint format.
  • Ongoing updates through an e-mail newsletter, which can offer advocates hints about tidbits to feed their bosses.

Source: Norman Nielsen Group Inc.

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