Nielsen Topic: Web Usability
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Zigzag Image–Text Layouts Make Scanning Less Efficient
In two-column layouts, vertically aligned images support efficient scanning better than images that alternate placement with text.
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Don't Be Fooled by Surface-Level Design (Jakob Nielsen)
Look beyond surface-level qualities to assess UX value. A design that looks (or sounds) good does not mean that it is. Good websites contain engaging features that help people accomplish their goals.
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Horizontal Attention Leans Left
Users spend 80% of the viewing time on the left half of the page vs. 20% on the right half. Standard designs will maximize user efficiency and company profits.
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Making Flat Design Usable
The hazards of flat design and 5 key UX guidelines for making flat design usable.
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Back-to-Top Button Design Guidelines
9 UX guidelines for Back to Top links which help users navigate to the top of long pages. Depending on users’ needs, other techniques may be more appropriate on some sites.
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"Get Started" Stops Users
A generic Get Started call-to-action attracts clicks, but also misleads users and acts as a roadblock for those looking to get information about the company.
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Jakob's Law of Internet User Experience
Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. Design for patterns for which users are accustomed.
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Homepage Links Remain a Necessity
A site logo linking to the homepage is not enough. Logo design and placement, as well as the presence of a text link to the homepage affect success of navigation to homepage.
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Instilling Confidence in Online Shoppers: I Bought a Sofa Online and Good UX Sealed the Deal
A stellar user experience focused on users’ question and needs can persuade shoppers to make big-ticket purchases online.
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Anchors OK? Re-Assessing In-Page Links
While jump links have caused problems in the past, they can successfully be used to move users down long pages and directly to content, on any screen size.
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Flat-Design Best Practices
Avoid the negative side effects of flat design by clearly differentiating between clickable and unclickable elements.
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Comparison Tables for Products, Services, and Features
Use this versatile GUI tool to support users when they need to make a decision that involves considering multiple attributes of a small number of items.
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Flat Design Decreases User Efficiency
Though aesthetically appealing, flat designs often force users to guess which elements are interactive, leading to increased user errors and frustration.
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User-Experience Quiz: 2016 UX Year in Review
Test your UX knowledge by taking our quiz. All questions and answers are based on articles that we published last year.
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Web UX 2016 vs 2004 (Keynote address)
Jakob Nielsen presents a rare longitudinal study of 12 years' evolution in web usability, from the UX Conference in London.
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Give Thanks for Good UX
User experiences that bring joy through ease or delight deserve our appreciation. We extend our gratitude for some of this year’s design improvements.
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Are Chinese Websites Too Complex?
Testing finds that Chinese and Western users experience the same difficulties with complex sites, but Chinese tend to complain less about complexity and prefer fairly high information density.
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Top 10 Enduring Web-Design Mistakes
A large-scale usability study revealed the most common and damaging web-design mistakes of today. They aren't surprising or new - they're enduring issues that continue to hurt website usability.
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Minimize the Need for Customer Service to Improve the Omnichannel UX
Contacting customer service often reflects on UX. To reduce such failures, understand the customer journey and support it through UI design.
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WeChat: China’s Integrated Internet User Experience
User research finds that tightly integrated services with simple and unified design make people use WeChat; mainly through traditional GUI interactions, not a “conversational UI.”