Jakob Nielsen & Marie Tahir
2002, New Riders Publishing
315 pages, $39.99
We've reported on and employed Nielsen's insights relative to Web site design in past articles and recommended his book, Designing Web Usability, a classic, now available in 14 different languages. His new book, Homepage Usability, focuses strictly on home pages, rather than the larger subject of his earlier book.
Every site must have a home page. Generally it's the first thing a visitor sees. If the home page doesn't appear immediately relevant, the visitor will click the back button, never to return. So the home page has a special role to play and it's critical to the success of the site.
Nielsen/Tahir devote the first 50 pages to an overview of the principles of homepage design. The discussion is so clear, well organized, and convincing (well, of course one can take exception here and there), that you want to immediately check your own homepage, something Nielsen anticipates and helps you do. The results of a self-evaluation can be discouraging, but certainly provide specifics for improvement.
The balance of the book examines 50 homepages, mostly by well-known organizations, such as Amazon, Citigroup, and ESPN. Each homepage is reproduced in living color and the accompanying text offers in-context concreteness the earlier general principles section lacks. The book is very attractive and lends itself to browsing as well as reading through. Highly recommended. - J.A.
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