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Title: Web Site Usability by Jared Spool, Tara Scanlon, Carolyn Snyder, Terri DeAngelo, Will Schroeder, Terri DeAngelo, Tara Scanlon, Will Schroeder, Carolyn Snyder Jared Spool ISBN: 1-55860-569-X Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Pub. Date: 17 November, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.35 (31 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Pivotal work shakes preconceptions
Comment: As a report on a major usability study this one is probably pivotal and I would recommend it to anyone involved in delivering a commercial web presence.
Jared Spool and the UIE team discovered many new things in the studies this book is about. Up to the point of publication, web usability and general usability were closely equated, and not just the test methodology. But Spool's studies find unpredictable users surprising our preconceptions at every turn.
Some may say that the book contains too many questions, but when Spool admits "we don't really know what makes a site usable" he is reflecting the number of surprises his studies unearthed.
As for the causes of those surprises... the studies were performed as 'comparison tests' between sites that fulfilled wholly different purposes.... between (for example) Disney and Edmunds (car facts)... it may be invalid to compare usability between sites even if they are in the same domain, however, let alone when they are so diverse. For it may be a usability test can only identify weaknesses, not strengths. Perhaps that's why Spool says we don't know how to design for usability.
One possible weakness of the tests was that they were designed as 'scavenger hunts.' This is still very common, however, and only by studying the results of this book is one led to suspect that this approach generates an overly-directed browsing behaviour, and thereore measures only a subset of real web visitors utilising only a subset of possible tasks, which are not a proxy for general usability.
If you only read three books on web usability, this should be one of them.... Essential.
Rating: 3
Summary: Useful information, but based on old Web sites
Comment: I appreciate the research of Jared Spool et al at User Interface Engineering, and have consulted it often as I review and design user interface elements. I will, no doubt, do the same with this book. It helps that I've been a longtime fan of the Edmunds.com site, which was part of the research this book reports. Now my gut feeling about that site's good usability is backed up by a usability-study report.
But wait! Edmunds.com has been redesigned since 1997, which is when this usability study took place. So have most, if not all, of the other sites. This book's screen shots of the sites in the study make the book look like a museum of the 1997 World Wide Web. These sites actually look quaint!
I wonder whether this book's findings have decayed and have become less useful. My concern is not stopping me from using this book as a reference tool, but I do reserve some skepticism in applying its results.
Rating: 4
Summary: Informative and eye opening!!!
Comment: I found this book to be quite helpful in preparation for designing a website. Since the website I am designing is strictly informational in nature, I learned many new concepts not only about the basics of a good informational site, but also about the “cruising” habits of web readers.
The book is a quick read and I took many notes, but the important thing that I gleaned from this book was how to make my site informational, easy to navigate through and what works and does not work as far as design and color are concerned. As a cruiser myself, I know what bores me, irritates me, frustrates ma and what appeals to me when I am on a mission to find information and when I want to find it fast. The information contained in this little was quite valuable in that regard.
This is NOT a book about design and the use of color, etc., but instead a book about making a site usable to the “cruiser” and then giving you, the reader, the information on how to attract users to your site, so that they won’t get irritated or frustrated. Admit it, we all have been to those sites!!
I think one might be surprised when reading this book, that color, tons of pictures and graphics are not key elements in an informational website, and our preconceived notions will quickly be laid to rest!
Very good book for a “newbie” starting out on the road to web-design as well as seasoned designers.
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Title: An Introduction to Usability by Patrick W. Jordan ISBN: 0748407626 Publisher: T&F STM Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity by Jakob Nielsen ISBN: 156205810X Publisher: New Riders Pub. Date: 20 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed by Jakob Nielsen, Marie Tahir ISBN: 073571102X Publisher: New Riders Pub. Date: 05 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug ISBN: 0789723107 Publisher: New Riders Pub. Date: 13 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Usability Engineering by Jakob Nielsen ISBN: 0125184069 Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Pub. Date: 23 September, 1994 List Price(USD): $32.00 |
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