Website Design: The Art of Simplicity by Jakob Nielsen Synopsis Creating Web pages is easy. Creating websites that meet the needs and expectations of a wide range of users is of course another story. In his book Web Design: The Art of Simplicity, Jakob Nielsen, guru of web design, gives us his secrets. Full of examples from recent websites, this book explains many design principles all web developers should follow to win favour and build the most visible websites on the Internet. The guide is structured around the themes of page design, content, site design, and intranet. The plan is to separate different issues that are usually treated together in other works on web design. The question of the brevity of the text, for example, often linked to questions of page display on different screen sizes, is here separated and treated as such. This gives his argument time to unfold and carry the power of conviction. And Nielsen does not mince words. Frames, for example, are strongly discouraged. And this is not the only one of his positions to be presented in full clarity. We are fortunate in that his advice is among the best we can find. One of the unique interests of this book is based on the use of statistics to support recent remarks by the author on the various techniques and technologies used by the Internet. The book includes well-researched test results on screen sizes and response times by connection type and many other subjects. Presented as the first of two volumes, this book concludes by raising key issues. The author promises a sequel that should provide more precise answers.

Review 1 On the Web, usability is king. The user is confronted with the ergonomics of a site from its homepage, long before he decides to spend his time or money. On the web, the customer is king: he manipulates the mouse and so he decides. In this reference book, Jakob Nielsen, one of the world's foremost authorities on usability, offers all his knowledge and experience in creating websites. From page design to content, from navigation system to accessibility for disabled users, Jakob Nielsen provides comprehensive guidance on how to provide for all situations. Reading this book is perhaps the single most effective thing you'll ever do to ensure the sustainability of your site. Whatever your relationship with the Web - web design, web development, analyst, investor or simply an informed user - this book will open new perspectives. (Posted by Père Ubu)

Review 2 I decided to buy this book although opinions were very mixed. The fact is that it is not a book about computers, but a treaty of ergonomics adapted to the Web. And that is not easy because if the teaching of "technical" computer languages and software is based on logical objective factors well marked, that of "how to design a website that works" is more subjective. One glance at a website is enough to judge a site as poor or excellent, professional or amateur, and yet the explanation of "why" is not obvious. This book is so valuable in the diagnosis. The book is not perfect. Actually it is not ergonomic (so many pages!) Don’t expect to turn the pages and follow a logical path. The examples and positions are sometimes excessive. But this book forces you to step back and look at your site from the point of view of the user, forgetting for a moment your purely technical concerns. Finally you return to your studies of JavaScript, PHP and ASP and other programs thinking this is definitely the easiest part of your development! Last point, the book is expensive but the use of color is an explanation. Conclusion: still buy because the best books on how to design a "good" site are still rare. (Posted by Sergei)

Review 3 YES this book is well written, well presented and full of common sense advice, from which each will draw their own elaborate checklist. But the author pushes his stance to a degree that is almost a caricature. If you follow his advice, for example, the web will have virtually no pictures because downloading takes too long. It omits current tools used to create pages dominated by graphics which help to reduce volume to kilobytes. Furthermore, the words dynamic HTML do not appear in this book, which is a serious omission. (Posted by popeye)

Review 4 Jakob Nielsen is one of the leading lights of usability and from that perspective this book is a must read and a useful one to refer to. Too many images can be a problem with downloading especially for the mobile web. (Posted by Web Design in Shrewsbury)

Review 5 No, the simplicity of the Web is not a failure: on the contrary, a simplified design offers many advantages. If you love designing websites riddled with large images, distracting GIF animations, pointless Flash presentations and other graphic elements that are weighing down your pages, this book is certainly not intended for you. By contrast, if you understand the physical constraints of the Web you know that your visitors have no time to lose loading items that do not provide any added value and they are losing valuable time. Far from advocating the creation of websites presenting only text (as some critics seem to indicate), Nielsen stresses, however, the importance of text content on a website, referring to many studies which have shown that users of websites look first and foremost at textual quality and relevance. This is an essential book on web design that many web designers would do well to read as the status of many websites leaves much to be desired (the use of excessive graphics, perfectly useless GIF animations and excessive reliance given to form over substance). (Posted by Ivan)