Articles

Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., is a retired principal and co-founder (with Dr. Donald A. Norman) of the Nielsen Norman Group. Jakob established the "discount usability engineering" movement for fast and cheap improvements of user interfaces and invented the heuristic evaluation method.

Articles and Videos

  • Failure of Corporate Websites

    Most corporate sites are so bad that Web usability problems cost a large company millions of dollars per year. On average, users fail when they try to accomplish tasks on the Web.

  • Personalization is Over-Rated

    Personalized Web interfaces are over-hyped: users don't want to be stereotyped and it is too much work for them to enter detailed preference settings.

  • Does Internet = Web ?

    Advanced functionality requires Internet-enabled client-server software with optimized user interfaces that cannot be delivered in a Web browser. Reserve the Web for hypertext and content features.

  • The Web Usage Paradox: Why Do People Use Something This Bad?

    90% of all websites have poor usability - so why do users still use the Web (and like it, too)?

  • The Definition of User Experience (UX)

    "User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.

  • Internet World 2008: Two Talks I Might Present in Ten Years

    Jakob Nielsen's 1998 predictions of sessions he might present ten years later, at the 2008 Internet World conference.

  • Impact of Data Quality on the Web User Experience

    Errors in data records destroy the usability of a site and make it difficult to find info. Guidelines for preventing, correcting, and surviving errors.

  • Should You Outsource Web Design?

    Web design is a core competency for the network economy and should not be outsourced, even though certain specific components may be outsourced.

  • Fighting Linkrot

    6% of the Web's links are broken, diminishing its usability. All old URLs should be kept working indefinitely - otherwise you throw away business.

  • Micro-Containers: An Example of Strategic Web Thinking

    Treating the Web as a strategic industry driver will lead to a patent bonanza where companies sew up entire ways of doing business. Distribution networks are discussed as one example of such a change