Jakob Nielsen - web research

[samearl]

http://www.webanalysis.co.uk

and submit your views concerning web design.

I am currently in my final year of Brunel University and am studying Jakob Nielsen’s work. This includes web usability and his comments (www.useit.com) 10 most common mistakes with web design. I am trying to collect as much information on this particular area as possible. I will then analyse the information in great detail. It will be interesting to gather people’s information from all over the world and conclude on the findings. I have about 4 months to collect enough information from the polls and the forum. Hopefully with your help this should be plenty of time.

The project aims to gather people’s views as to whether these statements are still relevant. There are a number of polls on the site (www.webanalysis.co.uk ) referring to web design and Jakob’s work. Please feel free to take part and add your own views. There is also a forum where people can leave their own ideas. If you would like to contact me directly please do not hesitate to e-mail me at the above address.
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www.webanalysis.co.uk - In depth look at Jakob Nielsen's work.

I found these threads that look to be similar to yours. Do any of them help?

• Am doing some research on this one by Jethro in the forum Bringing In The Hits

If they don't a human will be along soon anyway to help you out more.

[splufdaddy]

I see many of Neilsen's 10 no-no's right on the home page. Distracting animations, a button that looks like a banner as, different colored links, and a confusing navigation. (Vote Site, and it's sub-headings dont make sense to me).
Doesn't make me want to figure out where to give you feedback.

[zionlocke]

i prefer http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com

the sites mentioned above just **** me off

[smoseley]

Nielsen's theories are still in use in much of corporate web design.

Unfortunately for his hard-nosed practitioners, the web has really moved forward in terms of multimedia content, with embedded flash animations, sounds, videos, and more coming (SVG for instance).

No longer is it considered desirable to simply have an informational site. We now must use these myriad media to our better marketing potential !!!

The question is this: given the augmentation of content potential in the web, how does one still apply the basic PRINCIPALS of Nielsen to the new web, and what is the NEW definition of "Web Usability"

<steps down from the soapbox>

- Steve

Advanced Web Content <--- nearing completion

[TheGAME1264]

I've never been a fan of Nielsen's comments and views myself. The things that he says that aren't common sense are just plain insane.

Good web design can be summed up in one simple sentence: Design for your target market. It doesn't matter what I want or what you want or what Jakob wants; what matters is what your customers want. If your target market includes a great deal of broadband users and your products/services are geared to it, then use more graphics as opposed to text. If the opposite is true (as it is in most cases) use the text-based version. Each website has to be designed/developed on a case-by-case basis and while a few general principles may remain true, the vast majority of his views are outdated (and he's guilty, if I remember correctly, of using an absolutely hideous and hard-to-read font himself on his website.)

One of the other major elements of a successful website is to use a host that isn't down right now, and our boy Jakob is kind of guilty of that right now.

[zionlocke]

- i say keep it simple and clean.
- also make sure that flash files are no bigger than 100kb.
- 56kers hate waiting for 500 kb sites
- e-business is cool, but if the company is is for something that can be bought near a visitors house, don't even suggest e-business
- chat rooms are a waste because nobody is ever on it at the same time; instant messengers are what's used
- table tag in html is better than iframe and frames no matter what you think
- annoying amounts of animation are confusing to the average person; jakob's constant looping animations would **** off most people
- images should be good quality and well organized but should not take more than 10 seconds to load the page on a 56k
- a page should be desinged for 800x600 and still look good at 1024x768
- no mystery navigations make either buttons, tabs, or underlined text
- music does not neewd to be on any site; a lot of users listen to their own music now; if there is music, have it off on startup and buttons inferface somewhere to turn it on.

That's a few more things to show how to be a good web designer

From the words of a mighty ewok warrior,
ZionLocke

[ivcho]

no kidding zion..

or were you being sarcastic?

[smoseley]

ivcho, i like your website. nice flash work. clean and simple

[ivcho]

thanks transio..