
Designing Web usability
by Jakob Nielsen · first published 2000
11mentions
4recommended by
10HN commenters
2008–2025first – last mentioned
40% recommend50% neutral10% critical
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.






…not accidentally make sites that are hostile to users. Arguably, it should be learned before the programming part, so it's ingrained from the start. E.g. for me the defining text is Jakob Nielsen's “Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity,” which probably didn't lose any value in the time since publication, because humans don't change so fast. P.S. I'm also of firm belief that the proximity principle is by…
on “Roadmap to becoming a web developer in 2019” ↗…design: About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become Bulletproof Web Design Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide Designing Web Usability Designing With Web Standards Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction…
on “Ask HN: Typography—How?” ↗I have always liked his stuff, and I read and liked Designing Web Usability, but the enterprise-ish pricing on the real meat of his research annoys me immensely. E.g. "Usability of Intranet Portals A Report from the Trenches: Experiences From Real-Life Portal Projects 3rd Edition 343…
on “The web design guru web designers love to hate.” ↗Have you read Jakob Nielson's work? - http://www.useit.com/ Designing Web Usability would be a good start - http://www.useit.com/jakob/webusability/ And Homepage Usability is good for screenshots with examples - http://www.useit.com/homepageusability/ I would take what he says with…
on “Ask HN: improving your design skills?” ↗In Nielsen's "Designing Web Usability" I remember him frowning on the use of "here" and "click here" as links. Since around 2000, when I first read the book, I heeded his advice. For more information: click here To sign up, go here were…
on “You should follow me on Twitter” ↗…default). This page [1] suggests that most studies are even from before 'the web' (but from when is the page?). It has the quote by Jakob Nielsen that formed my opinion back when, from his well known 'Designing web usability': Use colors with high contrast between the text and the background. Optimal legibility requires black text on white background (so-called positive text). White text on a black background (negative…
on “Kindle is OK” ↗"Look at Jacob Nielsen for an example" Indeed - my copy of his "Designing Web Usability" was published in 2000, and the OP is basically a re-statement of the principles in this book.
on “Guidelines for Brutalist Web Design” ↗…main collection of articles: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ And there's a tag for ‘design patterns’: https://www.nngroup.com/topic/design-patterns/ I've been meaning to re-read Nielsen's classic ‘Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity’, which I have in print from mid-2000s, translated. It's likely to be a rather intense return to the past, considering how both the design space and my understanding changed…
on “The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design” ↗http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-Usability-Jakob-Nielsen/...
on “The Same User Interface Mistakes Over and Over” ↗…communicated grouping with boring stuff like fieldset. Now it seems I must scroll forever and there are no discernible anchors to link to. When studying web design in the early aughts the popular Nielson book ("Designing Web Usability") argued for separate pages over a lot of scrolling. For informational sites I think that approach is superior.
on “Google’s apps to embrace iOS on iOS” ↗He did a book ("Designing Web Usability" I think) with an unconventional layout and it clearly hadn't been user-tested as it had a flaw (text too close to the binding) that made it ironically hard to use. I think he was on point with a lot…
on “Gurus of 90s Web Design: Zeldman, Siegel, Nielsen” ↗