jakob nielsen

I find it ironic (and totally unplanned) that the blog topic I wrote on usability on at work today is featured in a similar light from the New York Times in today’s article about web site usability. They must have attended the conferences yesterday for World Usability Day. (For the record, that work blog had been a work in progress since yesterday, before I knew about World Usability Day as well.)

I’ll summarize my blog points on web usability guidelines:

1. Make the goal of your website (a product sale, for example) stand out at you on the landing page.
2. Understand the emotions of someone interested in your website and know that you are not your audience.
3. Include persuasive content. Use power words.
4. Design something memorable — in a good and catchy way.
5. Don’t add unnecessary bells and whistles that detract from your offerings.

The New York Times article reiterated important guidelines that I also touch upon, such as approachability (contact information being easily found), eliminating unnecessary design elements, and even mentions a bit of SEO basics (using quotes from Matt Cutts) as well.